Prov 7:25 [ESV] Let not your heart turn aside to her ways; do not stray into her paths.
As a young man I was usually careful with my money, and understood the connection between long hard hours and having resources. Until one day a “friend” invited me to go to a casino with him at night. I walked around watching others at all the various tables of roulette, black-jack, poker, and punto-banco. Everyone seemed to know what they were doing.
Eventually I risked a pound on black jack, and I won the hand, so I had two pounds. I stopped there and soon after set off home. Oh, but a seed of a thought had been planted, and that thought was to take me astray. A few years later I was a professional gambler, and did not really work anywhere. I went to the casino when it opened at 2pm is and left at 4am when it closed. Free food and drink, and I developed a scheme that required patience but usually paid off, until one night it didn’t and I lost everything. That’s another story though…..
KNOWLEDGE – Its healthy to acknowledge to ourselves that it’s possible for us to go astray. Sometimes we can adopt a mindset that says to ourselves that we won’t ever fall, and that we are too smart to get caught out. Well, it’s good to be confident, and it’s also good to be humble. It took me some time to recognise that I was not superman, and that I could not on my own hold onto the standards that I believed God was calling me to. It was through brokenness, and self-compassion, as well as humbling myself and regular and frequent repentance that I even started to discover my desperate need of God each day to keep me on the right path. It’s good to admit to ourselves and trusted others, that we don’t know what we don’t know.
UNDERSTANDING – Let’s pick one word from this verse to look closer at and see if that can help us gain a deeper insight into how God would love us to live?
The word used for “stray” is pronounced “ta’ah” and includes the idea of deceiving ourselves, or even to mislead others. The LXX has it as “you should not be misled” and uses the Greek word πλανηθής planethes – which appears 39 times in the New Testament (root word is – πλανάω / planao) and caries the meaning to go astray or to err. (see Matt 18:12,13, & 22:29 for examples).
WISDOM – What incremental changes am I allowing into my thinking or passions that are gradually moving me away from God’s best, and positioning me to be mediocre?
STRENGTHS THOUGHT: Ideation is a Strategic Thinking Talent, and people with this talent are fascinated by ideas, connecting things that don’t initially look like they would go together. Where we choose to allow this talent to focus will made a massive difference in our lives.
Allan’s Unauthorised Version – let not your thoughts, emotions, conscience and courage go astray onto her pathways, do not deceive yourself and wander onto her path.
Let not your heart – let not you thoughts, emotions, conscience, and courage
turn aside – go astray
to her ways – onto her pathways
do not stray – do not deceive yourself and wander
into her paths – onto her path.
PRAYER: Father, thank you for today. Help me to to keep my thoughts on you and to follow your ways.
To chat to me as a professional coach/mentor – [email protected]
I so love feedback – please do scroll down and use a few moments to encourage me?