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Msg #562                Wednesday, June 10, 2009

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make straight paths for your feet… (Heb 12:13)

Are you walking straight?  That is the question I want to put to you today.

What does it mean to walk straight? 

A straight path is a phrase and description in the Bible of living right, doing what is right.  We understand this and use this in our vocabulary almost without thinking.  Morally one who lives according to God’s design is “straight”.   When someone does wrong, we call them crooked.  So straight is a picture of consistently doing what is right.

Why should we walk straight?

Such a lifestyle honors and pleases God.

Such a lifestyle strengthens us.   The verse immediately before this calls us to strengthen ourselves.  This is done by doing what is right.

Such a lifestyle gives direction to others.  This is really one of the main points of our verse.  That when we live right and walk straight – we leave a clearly marked and pointed path for others to follow God.

How can we walk straight? 

Perhaps this is the main thing I want to share with you and ask you to consider.   Last night, as I was mowing my grass I was thinking about this and praying about this.  I was thinking about making straight lines in my grass…and realized afresh how difficult it can be.

First –if you don’t try…it won’t be straight.  Nobody makes straight lines on accident.  It was true in mowing my grass, and it is true in life.   Crooked lines in our lives…are easy.   If you are not trying today to do and live right…then you are leaving a crooked path behind you.

Second – if you watch your own feet…it won’t be straight.   I know this sounds silly and I feel a little silly for writing it – but it is true.  As I was mowing my grass, I tried watching the mower, the line in the grass and my feed at different times.  Each of these proved incapable of mowing a straight line.  I found myself thinking how true this is spiritually.  If you are focusing on yourself and simply trying to do right by looking at yourself….then you are not leaving a straight line.  It cannot be done this way consistently. 

So…how do you make a straight line…

The way to make a straight line is have a fixed point in mind.  Ok…if you have not tried this, it might not make sense…but it is very true!  As I mowed my grass, if I fixed my focus on a goal at the end of the yard and stayed focused on it and you know what?  I mowed straight lines!   Silly?  Yes, but so very true.  As I pondered that, I found myself thinking of these passages in Hebrews 12.  I was drawn again to how it tells us to live.

… let us run with endurance the race that is set before us,

 looking unto Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith …. (Heb 12:1-2)

The word for “looking” could even be better translated “fixing” or locking our focus on Jesus.  It is not meant to be a casual or only occasional look – but a fixing of our focus on Jesus.   Simple point – if you want to do right today, Christian.  If you want to live right – then the only way that will happen is by fixing your focus on Christ!  Consistently, constantly be thinking of Him, looking to Him…and He will make your path straight!

Today…let’s keep focused on Christ…and thus make straight paths behind us!

Jim

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