O LORD, I know the way of man is not in himself; It is not in man who walks to direct his own steps. Jeremiah 10:23
As you go through life from day to day, there are many forks in the road, choices that will take you in one direction or another. Sometimes there are signs indicating what is waiting at the end of the road, but many times the way is unmarked. You can look for clues as to which way seems to be the best choice based on how well traveled a particular path is or how smooth and easy one way seems to be compared to another.
Of course, taking any of the above approaches to determine the way you should go can (and more than likely will) lead you down a path you never intended to take. Even if there are signs indicating where a trail is leading, it does not necessarily follow that the signs are accurate and may indeed be deliberately dishonest and misleading.
How about choosing the way that appears to be the most popular; going the way everyone else seems to be going just because that is the way everyone else seems to be going. After all, the reasoning goes, if everyone is going that way then it has to be right, right? Wrong. Even if everyone you know or everyone on earth chooses a certain path, that does not make it right. Everyone could believe something and that would not make it true.
Well then, how about just choosing a path based on how smooth and easy it is. Jesus was faced with some of these choices when He was led by the Spirit into the wilderness to be temped by the devil for forty days. During this time, He neither ate nor drank anything, so at the end of the forty days He was hungry. The devil laid a very pleasant-looking path before Jesus; turn some stones into bread and relieve that hunger. That would seem like an obvious path choice, until you consider that He had been led to that place at that time for a reason and it involved conquering the temptations of the wilderness and staying true to the Father’s will.
Jesus faced many forks in the road of life during His years on earth, but the one that stands out above the rest is the night He prayed in the Garden of Gethsemane, asking for a different path, a smoother and easier one, if it were to be the Father’s will. But, an easier path would not have taken Him up the hill of Golgotha with a cross on His back, the one and only path that would lead to the salvation of as many as will receive the glorious gift.
You cannot determine the next step to take in your life based on the claims of others as to where this or that road leads, for it is not in man to know his own way; the future and the truth are the Father’s and only He can properly direct your steps.
You may find (and even question God as to why) you are led down a path that does not seem to be so widely traveled as others. You could also find yourself traveling a way that is not always easy and sometimes seems downright impossible. But, just because a path is not popular or pleasant, that in no way determines whether or not it is the path you are to take. You cannot know in yourself what is the next step, so let the Lord direct your steps!
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