Jesus Is the One Who Directs Our Steps

A person may make many plans in his heart, but no one can guarantee that things will happen according to his own plans. He can only hope earnestly that things will turn out as he expects. Through the passage above, God teaches us that “our steps are not in ourselves, but in God.”

Jeremiah 10:23 “O LORD, I know that the way of man is not in himself: it is not in man that walketh to direct his steps.”

Proverbs 16:1 “The preparations of the heart in man, and the answer of the tongue, is from the LORD.”

Therefore, to our eyes, it may seem as though people make plans and then walk according to those plans. But in reality, because the directing of our steps belongs to God, our plans can be fulfilled only if God permits them (Matthew 10:29). Therefore, from the beginning, we must seek to know the way of God and try to walk in that way. Only then can we receive an answer from God. However, among people, there are those who do not first seek to know the way of God, but instead try to walk confidently according to their own plans and their own way. But we must understand that this can bring about the following result:

Jeremiah 6:16-19 “16Thus saith the LORD, 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. But they said, We will not walk therein... 18Therefore hear, ye nations, and know, O congregation, what is among them. 19Hear, O earth: behold, I will bring evil upon this people, even the fruit of their thoughts, because they have not hearkened unto My words, nor to My law, but rejected it.”

Therefore, our conviction must be a conviction to follow the Word of God, not a conviction that stubbornly clings to our own plans, or our own way (Romans 2:5). We must lay down our own wisdom, acknowledge by faith that only the counsel of God shall stand completely, and follow only His Word.

Proverbs 19:21, 23 “21There are many devices in a man’s heart; nevertheless the counsel of the LORD, that shall stand. 23The fear of the LORD tendeth to life: and he that hath it shall abide satisfied; he shall not be visited with evil.”

Proverbs 3:5-6 “5Trust in the LORD with all thine heart; and lean not unto thine own understanding. 6In all thy ways acknowledge Him, and He shall direct thy paths.”

Long ago, God told the children of Israel, who had come out of Egypt into the wilderness, to look to the ark of the covenant of God and follow it.

Joshua 3:3-4 “3And they commanded the people, saying, When ye see the ark of the covenant of the LORD your God, and the priests the Levites bearing it, then ye shall remove from your place, and go after it. 4Yet there shall be a space between you and it, about two thousand cubits by measure: come not near unto it, that ye may know the way by which ye must go: for ye have not passed this way heretofore.”

In this way, when the Israelites in the wilderness had to walk a path they had never passed before, they had to look to the ark of the covenant of God and follow it. Likewise, when we today walk a path we have never walked before, we also must look to the ark of the covenant of God and follow His Word. Then, just as He did in the past, God will show us the way we must go. Only God knows the way that we take (Job 23:10-14), and He alone is the One who directs and leads our way. Therefore, by faith, we must acknowledge this God (Psalm 37:5-6). So now, we must cast away our own thoughts, worries, and anxious hearts, believe that all things will be done according to the will of God, and humbly seek to obey His will.

The ark of the covenant of God is Jesus Christ, the Word of God who was made flesh (John 1:14), and Jesus is our good Shepherd (John 10:11). Therefore, for the glory of the name of Jesus, He will lead us into green pastures and beside the still waters (Psalm 23:1-3). We, as His sheep, must strive to recognize only the voice of Jesus, our Shepherd, and to obey only that voice (John 10:3-5).

John 14:5-6 “5Thomas saith unto Him, Lord, we know not whither Thou goest; and how can we know the way? 6Jesus saith unto him, I am the way, the truth, and the life: no man cometh unto the Father, but by Me.”

Matthew 7:13-14 “13Enter ye in at the strait gate: for wide is the gate, and broad is the way, that leadeth to destruction, and many there be which go in thereat: 14Because strait is the gate, and narrow is the way, which leadeth unto life, and few there be that find it.”

Amen.