Where am I Going?

As I’ve been reading 1 Kings I’ve noticed a few things, one is how far from God the nation of Israel gets, and two how it all started from a few small problems. 1 Kings takes place after King David’s death and the start of Solomon’s reign. Currently I’m reading chapter 22, and things are not going well. After Solomon died there was a civil war that split the nation into two separate parts the northern Israel and southern Judah. Eventually the Assyrian’s capture Israel and sometime later the Babylonian’s capture Judah. The interesting thing though is this, all of Israel’s problems started out as small things. Idolatry started with the golden calf, David’s family problems are similar to Jacob and his twelve sons, what start as family disputes carry over from generation to generation and end up causing the ultimate ruin of an entire nation. I’ve been thinking about faith and how it has to be active, it has to grow, and what this shows me is that early decisions have a big impact later on, that the choices I make now will affect me in the future. I could go through the motions every day, read my Bible, pray, and try to be a good person, but if I am not going anywhere if I am stagnant then where will I end up? Meaning at the end of it all how will I have changed? On the other hand if I actively pursue God and make an effort to love and obey Him and care for those around me it will make a difference. Faith was never meant to be something that could be put on a shelf and dusted off, it should be worn and exercised daily so that it will have an impact. I used to think of every action as going to or away from God, but really it’s like taking a turn on a road and it all depends if the decisions I made brought me closer to God or farther away from Him.