Perfect or flawed

DEVOTION

PROVERBS

PERFECT OR FLAWED

Prov 20:24

24 A man's steps are directed by the LORD. How then can anyone understand his own way?

NIV

An ancient writer penned these words, “A man who carves his own way, cuts his fingers”. This is the point of this proverb in a nutshell. Who can foretell his own life? Which of us can tell what is going to happen in the future, for that matter tomorrow? We might have our whole life all planned out and walk into work today and be fired. Then where is our plan? We might determine to have a certain amount of money set aside for retirement or have some investment of sorts for that purpose then the market completely fails and all it lost. We might think life is going so well, and then a fatal incident occurs and everything changes.  How can we make any plans without the counsel of God? We simply cannot understand or make sense of what will happen next week, next month, next year or any amount of time. God knows our whole life before we live it. Because Jesus said, I am the way, the truth and the life, we have no life without him. God gave us life in the first place and that life has been given for his purpose. He has a plan for our lives. Our lives our directed by his providence. We are where we are because God planned it that way. We are who we are because God planned it that way. Our parents are, or were who they were because God ordained we would have them as parents. Our youth, our experiences, our pain, and our joys were ordered by God to bring us to the place and time when we would acknowledge Jesus as Lord and Savior. God does not order our footsteps to just live this life and die without life, without a resurrection into his new creation. What purpose would life serve if it was just this brief moment in the course of eternity? What purpose would life serve if it was lived by our own plans, desires and goals? Sure it would be a life of self-serving, but it also would be life that leads to eternal death. We are created by God for God. He and he alone can give us order in our lives that has both a temporal and eternal purpose. Let us walk in his steps, and not in ours. Let us seek his way, not ours. Let us listen to his voice, not ours. Let us take his counsel, not ours. Let us live for him, not for ourselves. His way is perfect. Our way is flawed.