Your Next Footfall

The Christian life has been described by some as a “long obedience in the same direction;” that direction being towards Christ. Of course, the opposite of this is true as well: the reprobate’s life is a “long disobedience in the same direction.” That direction being towards hell.

What all this tells us is that your next step is a step towards glory or a step towards damnation. Apostasy doesn’t happen overnight. It is one unconfessed sin after another. It is one step of compromise after another. It is one selfish indulgence after another. It is one bitter vendetta after another. And each of those steps are the result of a dead heart that hates God and loves itself. The way of the transgressor is hard (Pr. 13:15), but it’s the only path they’ve ever known. Even their footfalls that outwardly appear to go more or less the right direction are steps of self-glory and vanity.

But if you step towards glory, if you obey, it is only because you’ve first been turned away from your sin and turned towards God. If you turn to seek after God, it is because God first sought you and turned you. And if God has turned you, even your sin and disobedience become another opportunity to move forward in obedience by confessing that sin, identifying it as the damnable iniquity that it is, and following hard after God, as His right hand upholds you (Ps. 63:8)

So what direction have you been headed? Have you, like David, ordered your steps in God’s word (Ps. 119:133)? Or have you, like Solomon warned, been walking in a way which seemeth right unto a man, but the end thereof is the way of death (Pr. 14:12)? So do as John commanded us, “walk in the light, as he is in the light (1 Jn. 1:7).”

The biggest lie we tell ourselves is that our minor sins, our small shuffles of rebellion, our so called little white lies are somehow not a big deal. The Apostle James taught us that if we break one part of God’s holy law we’ve broken the whole thing. If you’ve been turned, God gives grace that you might turn in obedience to Him by confessing your sins for what they are. God then upholds you as you continue to seek after Him, no matter how slow your progress may be. So order your footsteps to seek His face.