Right Direction

DEVOTION
PROVERBS
RIGHT DIRECTION
Prov 4:24-27
24 Put away perversity from your mouth; keep corrupt talk far from your lips. 25 Let your eyes look straight ahead, fix your gaze directly before you. 26 Make level paths for your feet and take only ways that are firm. 27 Do not swerve to the right or the left; keep your foot from evil.
NIV
I think this perversity of speech has the implication of rash speech and hasty answers, but I also see in a sense the warning against distorting the truth for personal gain. To be so distracted by the things of the world that I would use enough of the very words of God to make my case for personal gain, or that I would deviate from the truth that he has so clearly defined. That I would preach or teach something slightly off from what God intended is what I am seeing here as the warning. I need to fix my eyes straight forward on the truth. I cannot be distracted by all the things or ways of the world. It is easy enough to let them sneak into view. Then when they are visible enough to display their pleasures, it becomes even more difficult to resist. That is why it is so critical for me to fix my gaze directly before me, to see the finish line, and stay on the path. Why would I want to create a harder path for myself? Why would I want to place obstacles in my own way? Why would I want to always be running uphill? Why would I want to travel through some bog or swamp to get to the finish line? I think all those things could only make it more difficult. Of course, I could apply those un-level paths to all the rules and regulations of denominational deviations from the truth of God. I think the simple fact remains all of them cannot be right, nor all of them cannot be all wrong, but nevertheless I think it could be a point to stumble on, it could be an un-firm place. No, I must take the truth from the word of God and allow his Holy Spirit to guide me into all that truth. I cannot swerve in either direction, into the ways and traps of the world, or in the ways and traps of denominational rules, regulations, and bickering over who is right and wrong. I think all that is evil and I shall keep my feet on solid ground, on the path of truth. Does that mean I am a perfect human being? I think not, but at least I am headed in the right direction.