Straight Paths

Good Morning,

Proverbs 3:6 (NIV)
In all your ways acknowledge Him,
and He will make your paths straight.
Proverbs 3:6 (AMP)
In all your ways know, recognize, and acknowledge Him, and He will direct and make straight and plain your paths.

Let me ask you: Am I the only one whose path seems crooked and convoluted from time to time? Am I the only one who seems to be a bit lost and cannot find my way some days? Am I the only one whose path seems anything but plain and straight?

Okay. I'm being a bit facetious here because of course I know that all of us feel this way...some more than others...at times in our lives; in our walk with the Lord. It's a normal part of living this life here on this earth that God created for us. The questions that comes to mind, and I'm sure I'm NOT the only one asking them, are, "Why me Lord?! Why do I seem so lost? Why can't I find my way clearly?"

The answer, as I see it explained in this short, simple verse of Scripture is simple: We haven't done what is suggested here when we read, "In all your ways acknowledge Him, and..." Or, as we read in the Amplified version, "In all your ways know, recognize, and acknowledge Him..."

Pretty simple, isn't it? Seems straightforward to me, anyway. The problem we have...(well, the problem I often have)...is that we don't, truly, acknowledge God in ALL OUR WAYS! Yes, on the weekend when we attend services at our several congregations we openly, and often loudly, acknowledge God; praise God; worship God; and join together in thanks to God. We raise our hands and our voices in unison to "know, recognize, and acknowledge" the Lord God of the universe. And we leave our local worship houses with the best intentions in the world to continue our lives with the exact same sentiments and feelings that we have at that moment. But...(you have to hate that word sometimes, don't you?)...BUT...life happens to us. Often almost from the moment we step outside into "the world." The door of the church sticks. The traffic leaving the parking lot is horrendous and it seems that you are the only one who remembers how to drive. All the lights are red, all the way to the place we'll be eating our lunch. The line at the establishment we've chosen is way long. The waiter is rushed and rude. The food isn't as we thought it should be. The kids are totally out of hand...Well, I guess I can stop there, huh? You see, when all...or even any...of these things happen, we lose that total surrender to God that we had just a few short minutes ago, and we don't truly "acknowledge Him" as we should, and allow His love and presence to shine through us.

Oh, this doesn't even bring into mind all of the things that we sometimes NEVER give over to Him in our daily lives. Are we acknowledging Him in our workplace? Do we acknowledge Him when we go to the grocery store. Often we get up at the very last minute to get ready for our day and we don't even seem to have the time to acknowledge Him, and thank Him, for the day He's given us. Do we, in ALL our ways, really acknowledge Him? Then, we wonder when our paths are NOT straight. Then we wonder when we don't seem to be directed by Him.

Yes, this is a simple, straight forward, and plainly understood verse of Scripture. Notice I didn't say that would be easy to carry out, however. I guess that's because we get so caught up in ourselves. It has to do with the fact that we may not be living completely as we know we should (thus, making it even MORE difficult to acknowledge Him). Perhaps because of the way we were brought up...having no really examples of people how DID acknowledge God. Oh, there are many reasons why we don't acknowledge Him in all our ways, in everything we do. Then, there are also many excuses...but we don't need to go into that in detail, those of us who use them, well, we know who we are and what they are.

Certainly, we can see that if we want God to direct our paths and make them straight for us to walk, well then, we've got to first acknowledge Him in every part of our lives. Very easy to understand...not so simple to carry out, perhaps.

But, it's something we all need to do.

Love, peace, and blessings,

David