Inspirational Thought of the Day:
Seeking directions from the wrong place can get us severely lost.
Scripture of the Day:
Judges 17:6
“In those days Israel had no king. Each man did what he considered to be right.”
My husband thinks I could get lost leaving my driveway without a GPS. There is actually some truth to this statement. As much as I would like to think I have gotten better at finding my way, without a guide, I am in for another Denise adventure. And let me tell you, sometimes my “misadventures” are not all that fun.
I come by it honestly. I just don’t know sometimes which way is east or west. Don’t judge. We all have our strengths and weaknesses and direction is just not one of my strengths. At all. But one thing I do know – where to go to find directions.
While my hubby might laugh at me while I attentively listen to the GPS (which I daresay sometimes misleads me), for the most part, it will get me where I need to go. But the GPS has failed people in the past and people have even lost their lives following it to a desolate area and becoming stranded.
Kind of reminds me of the counsel of this world. Sometimes it is good, but when it strays from God’s GPS for us – His word, it leads us to desolate, desperate places.
What a sad picture is painted by today’s verse. When man is his own god and makes up his own religion as was happening during this part of Scripture, it is a state of being completely lost. The true compass of God’s word was set aside for man’s own inner inclinations and desires. What seemed like freedom became a place of slavery – lost in a world of sin.
How can a corrupt being know what is right when every inclination of our hearts is evil, apart from God’s grace? Yet our flesh is convincing. The prevailing humanistic thought of the day, “whatever feels right, do it”, has created most of the chaos we see today.
People proclaim their “rights” as if they were entitled to them, and are guided by their instincts. What a mess. Man wants the freedom of having relative truth, because it is a “one size fits all” solution. We get to do, say and think what we want. Unless, of course, someone else exercises their right to do the same and harms us with their “freedom”. If everyone does what feels good to themselves, someone ends up falling victim.
The Levite’s concubine in this chapter from Judges did not deserve to be abused and killed because of the desires of evil men around her. An entire tribe of Israel was essentially wiped out because of the mentality of the day of doing as they pleased. Sometimes our culture strays far away from the guidance of Scripture before we look around and see the consequences of “doing what seems right in our eyes”.
How do we get so off track? It is a slow, subtle and deceitful path. We follow directions that seem good on the surface. We rationalize getting our way because it would be cruel to tell ourselves “no”, after all. Sometimes the guidance of this world is so close to the original counsel of God’s word that we blindly follow, and find as we continue to follow this path we are led far away from God.
Even seemingly “good” advice can seem positive, but if it drifts from what God has revealed, it needs to be “unfollowed”. Seeking directions from the wrong place can get us severely lost.
It is considered small-minded to have righteous standards. Unfair to actually expect people to have morals. Yet a society without laws would be completely chaotic and become a place where people don’t have some of the most basic freedoms – safety.
We don’t have to get to the extreme place of darkness to look up, if we will by constant use examine ourselves according to God’s Word. Much like I and my directionally challenged comrades out there need a GPS to get to unfamiliar destinations, we all desperately need God’s Word to lead us. Don’t leave home without it.
God, thank You that You have not left us without instruction. Help our families, churches, cities, country and this world to look to You, the Author and finisher of our faith, and not to ourselves.