Proverbs 4.25-27
“Let your eyes look directly forward, and your gaze be straight before you. Ponder the path of your feet; then all your ways will be sure. Do not swerve to the right or to the left; turn your foot away from evil.”
The importance of paying attention to what you are doing and where you are going cannot be overstated. Your actions and habits have you on a path, and the path you are on leads to a destination. It’s very straightforward: Right path = good destination. Wrong path = bad destination.
Let me put it in terms of E+R=O: The way you manage the “R” has you on a path, and you will end up where your R Factor habits take you. Therefore, pay careful attention to how your R Factor choices and the path you are on. If your R Factor choices are not taking you in the right direction, it is time to change.
This is why the on-path life is discipline-driven, and the off-path life is default-driven.
“Keep hold of instruction (musar); do not let go; guard her, for she is your life.” (Proverbs 4.13)
“Hear, my son, your father’s instruction (musar), and forsake not your mother’s teaching.” (Proverbs 1.8)
The message is this: Don’t get tired of being instructed and trained. Stay on the path of discipline-driven learning. Do not despise the Lord’s process of instruction and training. The followers of Jesus should be life-long learners; dedicated students of the truths (spiritual and physical) that God has built into the world he created. Scripture tells us that if we do stray from the learning and training process, the Lord will correct us and reprove us. At times even chastise us. The Lord does so because he loves us as a father loves his children.
A wise person wants to correct their off-path thinking and behavior. A wise person recognizes and submits to the Lord’s correction. God corrects out of love. He does not want his people to continue in life-damaging attitudes and behavior. Correction, though sometimes painful, is seen as a favor, a sign of grace.
Proverbs chapter 15 strongly emphasizes that only fools reject correction.
“A fool despises his father’s instruction, but whoever heeds reproof is prudent … There is severe discipline for him who forsakes the way; whoever hates reproof will die … A scoffer does not like to be reproved; he will not go to the wise ” (Proverbs 15.5,10,12)
Trust God and be coachable.
