We all want to live on the straight path to fullness of life, but there are so many other routes offered to us. The problem is that choosing any other way to live our lives, other that God’s way of wisdom, causes us to be lost. No matter how tempting they may appear, these ‘other paths’ aren’t shortcuts that rejoin the life-giving route later, rather they simply take us further away from the route until we are completely lost. Verse 19 says: ‘none who go to her come back, nor do they regain the paths of life.’

We are called to ‘keep to the paths of the righteous’, to simply put one foot in front of the other in step with God’s way and trust he will provide the rest.

Living this way, Solomon says, leads to us ‘inhabiting the land.’

This is an echo of the wilderness generation in the Exodus narrative. A journey across the desert that should have taken 2 weeks, ended up taking 40 years. Why? Because they didn’t stick to God’s path. They didn’t trust him for every step, they thought they knew a better way to live and so made life much more difficult for themselves and their community. How often do we fall into making the same mistake! Our job is to faithfully follow God with every step of our journey, this is the way to discover life in all its fullness.

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Questions:

What are some of the other paths we might be tempted to hop on? How do they lead us further from the path God offers us?

Prayer:

Father, help me to walk in step with you every moment of my life. Amen