A Good Path

Today’s Through the Bible Reading: Jeremiah 5-6; Jeremiah 13

"…Stand ye in the ways, and see, and ask for the old paths, where is the good way, and walk therein, and ye shall find rest for your souls…” Jeremiah 6:16

Don’t you know that the Lord desperately desires for us to seek Him for direction. He stands ready to guide and lead His children with perfect wisdom.

“If any of you lack wisdom, let him ask of God, that giveth to all men liberally, and upbraideth not; and it shall be given him.” James 1:5

God told Israel time and again to seek and obey Him and they would find the wise way.

“…Stand ye in the ways, and see, and ask for the old paths, where is the good way…But they said, We will not walk therein.” Jeremiah 6:16

Here, in Jeremiah’s time, the people did ask which way they should go – but then they foolishly refused to walk in the way the Lord revealed. In our fallen state we have the same tendency. Perhaps one reason for this can be found in society’s mindset of “keep moving forward”. But the Scripture makes it oh, so clear that sometimes God’s direction isn’t forward, but rather “reverse”. Take for example Revelation 2:5 where He instructs the church at Ephesus to return to their first love.

And that, my friends, might be the direction God is guiding you and me to – reverse – to do the things we did when we first came to Him, when we first experienced the wonder of being forgiven! What was it, Christian? Was it sharing the Gospel, devouring His Word, singing praises, ministering to the hopeless? Whatever it was, maybe God is guiding you to do it again. These are the “old paths” that Jeremiah spoke about in today’s reading. God’s guiding for you might be contrary to culture, but it will nonetheless satisfy your soul – so just go – in whatever direction He tells you to go – even if it’s “reverse”.