A push in the right direction

We might want to 'walk a straight path', but find ourselves kind of wishy-washy in some way, seeking to find 'happiness' in all those elusive places our mind creates or society touts as the 'answer' for our unhappiness. We don't exactly know how it happens sometimes, but we find ourselves seeking 'happiness' instead of contentment and joy. We find the plans God has for us a bit 'burdensome' because they don't produce 'instant happiness' in our lives. What we need more than anything is to ask God to help us stay the course, walking only in his path that is laid out in his word, and to have our focus changed from the elusive things that only report to bring us happiness, but really leave us quite unfulfilled and seeking something else.

Make me walk along the path of your commands, for that is where my happiness is found. Give me an eagerness for your laws rather than a love for money! Turn my eyes from worthless things, and give me life through your word. (Psalm 119:35-37)

If our psalmist asked God to 'make him' walk within his commands, what makes us think we don't need to ask the same thing? We are ALL weak and get wrapped up in the 'things' or 'schemes' that promise us happiness but are only temporary at best. Our eye-gate seems to be the very thing we need God to help us with most of the time. It is what we behold with our eyes that gets our minds to start working, isn't it? We 'see', then we want. We 'see', then we create ideas. We 'see', then we pursue. We need our 'seeing' to be clear and our actions to be wise and that only comes when God is the one who governs both!

The love of any 'thing' in our lives can take our eyes off of God's best for us. It can make us pursue an elusive form of happiness - superficial, unsustainable, and very unwise. Things that promise happiness in this world seldom provide more than a temporary 'fix' for some craving we have. We might want a relationship with someone but pursuing it outside of who God has planned for us to be in relationship with might seem to produce some form of 'happiness', but in the end, it leaves us quite empty and unfilled. 

Make us to walk - we need a little push in the right direction from time to time, don't we? The path of his commands - because what we behold with our eyes isn't always God's best for us. Give us an eagerness for your laws - the boundaries are important, the wisdom found while staying in them is essential. Turn our eyes - because they get drawn into the hype of this world and away from the things God says are important for us to consider and embrace. We need his help to walk upright much more than we need the fulfillment of our happiness, don't we? Just askin...