4 Easy Ways to Map Your Direction When You Lose Your Way
Be alert and ask to become aware of what is ahead
Remember how you learned directions? I do. When I was 8 years old, our teacher told us that facing north you looked ahead. Then south was behind you. Facing east was your right hand. Facing west was your left. I still do that sometimes to correct my own tendency towards getting lost, losing my way, not checking the map.
Be alert to check directions in the Bible
Joshua needed to know which way to go. He was given clear directions from God. He was alert.
Be strong and courageous, for you shall cause this people to inherit the land that I swore to their fathers to give them. Only be strong and very courageous, being careful to do according to all the law that Moses my servant commanded you. Do not turn from it to the right hand or to the left, that you may have good success wherever you go. This Book of the Law shall not depart from your mouth, but you shall meditate on it day and night, so that you may be careful to do according to all that is written in it. For then you will make your way prosperous, and then you will have good success. Have I not commanded you? Be strong and courageous. Do not be frightened, and do not be dismayed, for the Lord your God is with you wherever you go.”
Joshua 1:6–9 (ESV)
Solomon also talks about direction, indicating the consequences of wise and foolish choices.
“Dead flies make the perfumer’s ointment give off a stench; so a little folly outweighs wisdom and honor. A wise man’s heart inclines him to the right, but a fool’s heart to the left. Even when the fool walks on the road, he lacks sense, and he says to everyone that he is a fool. If the anger of the ruler rises against you, do not leave your place, for calmness will lay great offenses to rest.”
Ecclesiastes 10:1–4 (ESV)
Ask for directions
Right road or wrong road, left or right directions seem like human wisdom on the right with human foolishness on the left. Going up to true towards north is God’s way. Going down, or in opposition — away from God’s will, — would be evil.
In other words, ask for directions. Pray about it. Even when people go to seek counsel from a Christian friend or pastor, one of the best questions to ask is, “Have you prayed about it?” When problems come to you, instead of panic within, avoid racing to friends to explain the issues, pray. Calm your anxious heart. God knew about this before you experienced it.
Become aware of where you are
God did not make you a puppet on a string. You can choose. Your own life map may not be a straight line on a graph of quadrants leading up, down, and all around. You may be depressed by reading what Solomon wrote in Ecclesiastes or by becoming aware of the status of your life that Paul described in Romans.
“…for all have sinned and come short of the glory of God.”
Romans 3:23
To see specifically where you are, determine if your life falls into the category of the good, the bad, or the ugly. The way the Bible describes this is the wise, the foolish, and the evil.
“And if it is evil in your eyes to serve the Lord, choose this day whom you will serve, whether the gods your fathers served in the region beyond the River, or the gods of the Amorites in whose land you dwell. But as for me and my house, we will serve the Lord.”
Joshua 1:24 (ESV)
See what is ahead
However, you are still alive. There is hope.
Only Jesus saves.
Only Jesus satisfies.
When you confess your sins (name them) and repent (turn around and go up in God’s direction), you can then become the person He created you to be.
Accept Jesus as your Lord and Savior. God created you in His image.
“Then God said, ‘Let us make man in our image, after our likeness. And let them have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the heavens and over the livestock and over all the earth and over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth. So God created man in his own image, in the image of God he created him; male and female he created them.’”
Genesis 1:26–27 (ESV)
Keep on keeping on
Keep on keeping on the road that God designed for you. You are saved by His grace (undeserved favor as a gift to you that you did not earn or deserve). You are never saved (rescued from your own self) by your own good works. Now you are living a purposeful life given to you before you were born!
“For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God, not a result of works, so that no one may boast. For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them.”
Ephesians 2:8–10 (ESV)
Now you are alert, asking, aware, and seeing what is ahead that God loves you and has a plan for you with a clear direction. You are now in the light, not sleeping at the wheel of life.
