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Directions

Having just returned from a week’s vacation in which we drove approximately 1500 miles, I can attest to the fact that we would not have arrived at our intended destinations were it not for some kind of directions. Directions can be a set of instructions that you have that tell you where to go to arrive at a certain place. Directions can also be the standard for determining which way you are going to go such as North, South, East, and West.

It is also certainly possible for us to have the correct directions, but to be going in the wrong direction. The Psalmist writes in Psalm 119:5, “O that my ways were directed to keep thy statutes!” The passage makes it clear that not only must we have the right set of directions (the statutes), but we must be directed, that is, headed in the correct direction.

I once heard a story about a man who had flown in from another part of the country. He got into his car and pulled out the map of the place that he was to go. He drove around for hours following the map, but could not seem to arrive at his destination. He pulled over at a service station and asked for help. He explained where he was going and how the map had told him to get there. The attended said that he had everything correct but there was one small detail that he was missing–he was in the wrong city!

Just a few short days ago, God blessed us with a brand new year. This New Year has potential unlimited. There are opportunities just waiting to be seized. We have a whole year of time that we can dedicate to the service of the Lord. We have the directions that we need on what to do with this New Year. The question simply remains, “Will we be directed?” Will we be like the Psalmist who prayed to God for his ways to be directed? Or, will we be like the man who has the directions, but is in the wrong city and constantly headed in the wrong direction because of it? The choice is up to us to use this New Year to the glory of God or to waste it pursuing empty illusions of the world. Let us all pray together, “O that my ways were directed to keep thy statutes!