The Key to Successful Living

Have you ever gotten lost? I mean, really lost? The kind of lost that puts a sinking feeling in the pit of your stomach? The kind of lost when you have no idea where you are, or where you need to go?

As a girl, I remember visiting a friend. We went for a walk in the woods behind her house. After walking for awhile, we turned to go back, but neither of us knew where we were. The trees surrounding us were not familiar. There was no clear path back home. We had not paid attention to our path, and without realizing it we had lost our way. A fun time quickly turned to panic. Luckily for us, the woods were not that big, and we were able to regain our path pretty quickly.

There is a verse in the book of Proverbs that causes me to pause almost every time I read it. Solomon is warning his son about the adulteress woman and how dangerous she is. Then he says this about the woman, “She does not ponder the path of life; her ways are unstable, and she does not know it.” (Proverbs 5:6 NASB) While being physically lost is not good, losing our way in life is so much worse.

Just like when I was a little girl, not paying attention to where I was going when we don’t pay attention to the path of our life, we quickly lose our way. The adulteress woman who Solomon describes as dangerous did not get to her lifestyle overnight. It came from decision after decision that did not consider the ultimate outcome. She does not understand that her life has a greater purpose, a God-ordained purpose. So instead of living by that purpose, she is full of instability and completely unaware of how destructive her path is.

When we look at God’s instructions to Joshua in Joshua 1, we see God gives him specific direction to avoid losing his way in life. God gives Joshua a clear vision and then charges him to live by the word of God, not turning to the right or to the left. Joshua needed to spend time in God’s word and think about it constantly. Why? Because God’s word is the map for life. Joshua would only be able to live out God’s plan if he was constantly thinking about God’s word. His success would be directly tied to his ability to follow God’s instruction.

Something I have learned about myself is that I am really good at following directions or a map, but I don’t have an internal compass. In other words, I cannot trust my intuition on which direction is north, south, east, or west. When hiking, I do best on the trails that are already blazed. The ones that have markers along the way. You know the ones with paint on the trees and rocks that indicate you are still on the right path?

The same is true in life. Just like when hiking I need to check for the markers every few minutes along the way, I need to constantly be evaluating the path of my life. To stay on the right path, I have to read God’s word. I have to think about God’s word. I have to measure my life against God’s word. When I am not spending time in God’s word, it is like setting off into the woods with no path and no plan. Living God’s vision can never happen outside of His direction.

What does it look like for you to carefully follow God’s word? Are you like Joshua who was evaluating every step against God’s instruction or are you like the woman in Proverbs who does not take time to ponder her path, finding herself far from God?

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Only be strong and very courageous; be careful to do according to all the law of Moses My servant commanded you; do not turn from it to the right or to the left, so that you may have success wherever you go. This book of the law shall not depart from your mouth, but you shall meditate on it day and night, so that you may be careful to do according to all that is written in it; for then you will make your way prosperous, and then you will have good success.
Joshua 1:7-8 NASB

For this reason we must pay much closer attention to what we have heard, so that we do not drift away from it.
Hebrews 2:1 NASB

All Scripture is inspired by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, for training in righteousness; so that the man of God may be adequate, equipped for every good work.
2 Timothy 3:16 NASB