Wayward Wandering

By Dr. Michael L. Williams

Psalm 119:9-10 Wherewithal shall a young man cleanse his way? by taking heed thereto according to thy word. With my whole heart have I sought thee: O let me not wander from thy commandments.

You ever have one of those moments when you are trying to do something and there is something that you need to get it done? So, you stop what you are doing, to get that thing, but along the way someone or something distracts you. You deal with the distraction, but now you’ve forgotten what you came to get in the first place! (I know, some of us do not even need a distraction to forget what we were looking for.) So, we go back to what we were doing to figure out what we needed in the first place.

In today’s world, we find that our lives are full of distractions. It may be work, or school, our children, or even the race to get things done during the week. Then add to that the distractions of social media, politics, or even trouble within our family. Before long we find that we struggle just keeping it all together much less having time to spend making things better in our own lives.

Our Key Bible Passage asks the question, “Wherewithal shall a young man cleanse his ways?” In other words, by what means or how does he do this? The answer is “by taking heed thereto according to thy Word.” It is by paying attention and listening to what God’s Word has to say about it. In the context of being distracted, we need to focus on what God tells us about it. This focus is then an important factor to consider if we seek to cleanse our way.

In our previous devotions, we explored the role and position that our heart plays in setting our direction and motivating us to follow what God has commanded us to do. When we combine this with taking heed to the specifics that address cleansing our way then we develop a hunger to seek God more and more with each passing day. In turn, this opens our eyes to areas in our lives that need our attention. At the same time, the things that distract us become less distracting so that we are not easily distracted from seeking God with our whole heart. This causes our faith to increase even more.

God teaches us that faith is the substance of things hoped for; the evidence of things not seen (Hebrews 11:1). The substance of things hoped for is the faith that we have in what Christ did for us on the cross to save us. His love for us to do this motivates us to want to learn more about Him and causes us to want to seek Him with our whole heart. As we do this, He changes our heart and we start seeing changes in our desires and ways of doing things. This change excites us as we see that this fruit of a changed life is not of our doing, but of His doing. Instead of being distracted by the world and doing things our way, we are then focused and led by His Spirit to do things His way – a way that is clean, and pure, and holy. We then call out to God to take over our lives so that we no longer are distracted by our own wayward wandering.

Let us consider our ways and ask if they are full of distractions and detours from what God wants for us. Let us be devoted to spending time in God’s Word. In doing so, God will bless us with a changed heart and the ability to see the clear path, void of distraction, leading us to doing right.