In this episode, we explore how the Bible, specifically Proverbs Chapter 3, serves as a reliable compass for navigating life’s many challenges. Discover the principles that guide our paths, focusing on trusting the Lord and acknowledging His wisdom over our own instincts. Learn how kindness and truth, bound closely to our hearts, can transform not only our lives but also influence others around us for the better. We delve into the importance of aligning our steps with divine direction, understanding the consequences of following our wayward desires, and the financial wisdom that comes from honoring God. Listening closely to
Welcome to the In Touch Podcast with Charles Stanley for Thursday, January 23rd. Have you ever wasted time trying to figure out where to go instead of simply asking for directions? The same can happen in life. Thankfully, Proverbs chapter 3 offers a trustworthy compass for life’s journey.
SPEAKER 01 :
I’m going to show you why this Bible and this passage of Scripture is an awesome guide for your life and mine. And this passage alone will always keep you headed in the right direction. Trust in the Lord with all your heart. Lean not to your own understanding. In all your ways acknowledge Him and He will direct your path. Those two verses became like an anchor to my own thinking. And then as I began to read later on in life, a little later on, these other verses helped me to realize that here in one passage, It’s a compass for living. And I can tell you, God can be trusted to be faithful. This passage will always keep you walking in the right direction. So let’s think about it for a moment. Let’s look at the direction of this compass, the Word of God, this Bible compass. And the first thing you’ll notice is that it points to the Scripture itself. Listen, my son, do not forget my teaching, but let your heart keep my commands. Listen, this compass is our moral guide for this life. You and I live in a world that is very immoral. full of difficulties, heartache, pain, troubles, trials, and immoralities. This compass will keep you heading in the right direction all the time. Because remember this, every day you hear voices that would pull you away from the right path. You see things that would pull you away from the right path if you’re not careful what you look at. And so, many people are not going down the right path. They’re not heading in the right direction. First of all, they don’t even know what it is. You see, if you neglect the compass, you’re going to get in trouble sooner or later. If you do not acknowledge and believe that the compass you hold in your hand always points in the right direction, then you’re going to choose to do what? You’re going to choose to begin to walk in a direction that you feel is right. Ask any pilot. He will tell you, you cannot fly a plane based on your feelings when you get in the clouds, or you’ll find yourself flying upside down and thinking that you’re right. You’ll find yourself going in the wrong direction and swear that you’re going in the right direction. And there’s so many things in life, listen, that cloud our thinking. So many voices we hear that would try to convince us and persuade us this is right and that’s right. The word of God, meditating upon the word, listening to the word, taking notes on the word, applying the words to our heart. So he says, my son, do not forget my teaching. Let your heart keep my commandments. Let the word of God be uppermost in your thinking. Daily, it is your compass for living. The second thing I want you to notice is this. This compass points us, listen to what he says. Do not let kindness and truth leave you. Bind them around your neck and write them on the tablet of your heart. Kindness. This compass is always going to point us to being kind. That’s considerate and thoughtful and giving and helpful. and warm about our feelings toward other people. And the Bible says that kindness makes a man or a woman attractive. That is, God uses that character quality in our life to attract people to the Lord Jesus Christ who lives inside of us. This compass is always going to point you and me, listen, to be kind toward other people. to be helpful, to be a servant, to be giving when necessary, to be an encouragement to them in some way or the other. And so kindness is one direction we’ll always walk in if we follow this compass. But notice, if you will, what he says also. He says, and truth. That is, when you think about truth, many people are not interested in truth. For example, when you listen to many of the news broadcasts, they’re not interested in truth. They’re interested in giving a viewpoint, interested in getting listeners, interested in oftentimes in creating doubt in people’s minds and hearts. And when you hear people who spout off their little theology when they’ve not even looked at the Word of God, do not understand what the Word of God says, listen, oftentimes when they say it, it sounds like the truth. What you need to ask is this, how does that match the truth of the Word of God? Because listen, this compass will always lead you to truth. Why? Because it is inspired by the living God. It is the infallible, inerrant compass. It makes no mistakes. It always points Godward. Just like the physical compass always points northward to the North Pole. This compass always points toward God, heavenly, and it will always lead you in the right direction. That is to be truthful to other people and to act in truth with integrity. And one of the things we have to remember is this, we have to learn to be truthful with ourselves. And so many people are living with deceit, living a lie. They have told themselves and told themselves something for so long, now they have convinced themselves to believe a lie. At first their conscience stung them, it’s okay, it’s okay, it’s okay. They heard other people say it’s okay, it’s okay, it’s okay. They’ve listened to the voices and practiced disobedience so long, they’re fully persuaded it’s okay. That’s why I could walk in the wilderness, in the mountains, whether it’s in the snow or whether it’s in the rain or the beautiful sunshine. If I don’t have a compass in territory that I have never been in before, where I cannot see over the mountains, and especially if it’s an overcast day, it doesn’t make any difference what I think. I have to be truthful with myself. And if I’m truthful with myself, I will pull out the compass to find out which way is north, south, east, or west, or one of those varieties. And then I will choose what is the wise way. Now, notice what he says about these, verse 3. Do not let kindness and truth leave you. Bind them around your neck and write them on the tablet of your heart. You don’t just read some passage of Scripture. Listen, you meditate upon it. You think about it. You apply it to your life. It’s one thing to look at the compass and then ignore it. It’s one thing to look at the compass and then begin to figure what is the right direction. So when he says, write it on the tablet of your heart, look at that, write my commandments on the tablet of your heart, what is he saying? I want my truth to be at the heart of everything in your life. Write it upon the tablet of your heart, because you want to be truthful with others, you also want to be truthful with yourself. So that we’re to walk in kindness. We’re to walk in love. And we’re to walk in truthfulness. Let not kindness and truth leave you. Bind them around your neck and write them on the tablet of your heart. Then if you’ll notice what he says, he says, trust in the Lord with all your heart. Lean not to your own understanding. Which simply means this, this compass always, always points us to trust, to faith. That our God is trustworthy. He never makes a mistake. He will never mislead you under any condition. And sometimes we have difficulty trusting God. There are many things in your life and my life we can’t understand. Many things that God would require of us in my own life, I can say, that I didn’t understand at the time. Things he required of me that I was afraid to do. And so I had to come to the place of saying, am I going to trust you to bring me through this, though I don’t see how, I don’t feel adequate, I feel so absolutely inadequate to do this, am I going to trust him or am I not? I’ve thought about the times when God’s required something of me, and I’ve sort of felt petrified. But you know what? I did it anyway. And I can tell you in all these years that I’ve tried to live by this passage of scripture, not one time has he ever misled me. Not one time in the most difficult, frightening, trying things of my life has he ever failed me to keep me headed in the right direction and in the process, blessing me for it. And so I would just say, when you think about When you think about trusting Him, this compass is always going to lead you to trust Him. But I want you to notice something else about it. And that is, it will always lead you to seek His mind and His will about things. Listen to what He says. He says, now, trust in the Lord with all your heart. Lean not to your own understanding. And then He says, in all your ways acknowledge Him. This compass is always going to point you in the direction of seeking the Lord. That is, what does God think about the question before you? How does God want to intervene in this decision to give you the right sense of direction? In all your ways acknowledge Him, which means, listen, if I acknowledge Him, I’m recognizing Him as my Lord. I’m recognizing, listen, His infinite and perfect wisdom. I’m recognizing the fact that He will only lead me in the right direction. I’m recognizing the fact that He loves me unconditionally. I’m recognizing the fact that He only has the best for me, so therefore in all your ways acknowledge Him. That is, look to Him, seek Him. Why does he give us this awesome compass to live by? Simply because he loves us. Listen, he knows where all the pitfalls are. He knows on the path of your life and mine where it’s very narrow. He knows where it’s very broad. He knows all the temptations along the way. He knows all about the voices that’ll be calling for you here and calling for you there. He knows all about the attractive things that will appeal to you. And so, whatever there is out there, whatever’s going on that can draw you away, He knows all about them. And so what? He wants us to seek His will. God, what would you have me to do? What you have to do is check the compass. You cannot name a single solitary experience in life in which this compass will not give you clear direction. If you will meditate upon it, if you will ask God to give you direction, you see, because there’s no area in your life that you can exclude God. So he says, in all your ways, acknowledge him. And then if you will notice, look again here in this verse. He says, do not be wise in your own eyes, fear the Lord and turn away from evil. Now, this compass always points to obedience, always. There’s not a single verse to be found in Scripture that would entice us to do evil. That’s not who God is. This compass always points to obedience. Why? Because the God who created you created a plan for your life. You may be in the plan or not in the plan. Listen, He has a pathway for us to walk. This pathway is the pathway created by a loving God who loves us unconditionally. It’s a pathway that leads to the best for our life. It’s a pathway that has difficulty on it. Hardship, troubles, trials. But He’s going to use every single one of those to do what? To build character into our life and to make us Christ-like and to make us more useful. Listen, to make us a more valuable vessel of His. Because the more of those difficulties and hardships and trials we’ve been through, listen, the more capable we are of less tenderly listening to others and being able to discern what’s really going on in their heart and being able to identify with them and hurt with them. And so all of those things are part of his plan. And so when you think about, well, God, if you really loved me, you’d eliminate all these things. No, he wouldn’t. It’s because he loves us. And so if you’ll think about it, He would never lead you to do anything that’s disobedient. So, when you ask God to show you His will, and you deliberately, willfully, listen, step off the path, what you’re saying is, I’m smarter than God. What you’re saying is, God, I know that’s what the compass says, but I’m going to do something different. Listen carefully. There are many of you who have something in your life that that’s drawing you off course, off the path. And soon as I said that, you already know what it is. Because you know it doesn’t fit who you are. It’s not contributing to your life. It has you confused, frustrated, guilty, mixed up, and some of you are in depression because you’ve been off the path so long. You’ve chosen not to obey. And just like that piece of metal would cause this needle to do other than what it is created to do and point in the normal direction, it is a fallen object that should not be in the path and should not be held close to this compass. So ask yourself the question, what is it in my life that has so attracted me that I find myself slipping over here off the path. Oh, I know what the Word of God says, but somehow, in some way, all I want to say is this. If you don’t get on the right path, if you don’t get back to following the leadership of the compass, you’re going to make a horrible mistake. You either walk down the path of evil. You say, but I may not be doing exactly what I’ll do, but it’s not evil. Let me ask you a question. It’s either righteous or unrighteous. It’s either godly or ungodly. You’ve let the world convince you and persuade you and deceive you into thinking that things that are not right, that are a hindrance and that can destroy your life. You’ve allowed the world to convince you it’s okay. And I see people every day. If you watch the television and you read, here’s what you discover. There’s a world of people who live in our nation alone. who are headed in the wrong direction, and right now they’re sitting on the top of the world. They’ve got all the money they want, all the popularity, all the prestige, and many, many people who are blinded want what they have, want to be where they are, want to be able to do what they do. And I want to tell you, my friend, anytime you’re walking the path of disobedience, you are going to be disappointed and you are going to self-destruct if you don’t get on the right path. How many people, and you can look, whether it’s Hollywood or you can look around you, people at one time sitting on the top and everything was glowing. The next thing you know, you wonder what happened to them. Because you cannot disobey God without suffering the consequences. You cannot. He says, fear the Lord and turn away from evil. The next thing I want you to know is this. It points us also, listen, the financial wisdom. Look at this. He says in this… Ninth verse, honor the Lord from your wealth and from the first of all your produce, so that your barns will be filled with plenty and your vats will overflow with new wine. What does it mean to honor the Lord? It means that I respect Him and revere Him. It means that I acknowledge His Lordship. And when it comes to finances, here’s what it means. I honor Him as the creator of all wealth. I honor Him as the source of all of my wealth. It may be very, very, very little. But it falls in the category of wealth. Honor the Lord with your wealth. Listen, honor the Lord from your wealth. That’s very simple. Now, my wealth and your wealth is not only dollars and cents. It’s your abilities, your talents, your skills, your opportunities. Honor the Lord from your wealth. Here he’s talking about finances primarily or produce. He says from, listen to this, there are three words I want you to notice. Honor first and all. What does he mean by that? That I’m to acknowledge Him over everything that I have. How long do you think it would take you to lose everything you have? We honor Him as the creator and the source of it and the protector of it. Honor the Lord. Listen, it couldn’t be simpler. God will bless those who honor Him. Listen, this is part of the compass. He said, you want direction in your finances? Then start honoring God. Because when you dishonor God and then you expect Him to get you out of the mess, that’s a contradiction. And I’ll tell you why it’s not going to happen. Because listen, God isn’t going to contribute to what you are doing wrongly. You say, well, I’m going to make it somehow or the other. I want you to remember this. This compass will never mislead you. Then listen to the last direction of this compass. And that is? My son, do not reject the discipline of the Lord or loathe his reproof. That is, don’t hate his reproof. For whom the Lord loves, he reproves, even as a father corrects the son whom he delights. You know what he says? He says, here’s what this compass says. This compass says, listen, accept God’s reproof, accept his discipline because it came from the father’s love. When God comes down upon us for our disobedience, we turn with hatred and animosity. God, why are you allowing this to do this to me? And if he answered, you know what he’d say? I’m loving you. Well, this is not a way to love me. Wisdom says it is. Well, God, why are you doing this to me? Because I have this awesome path I’ve created for you. And I want you to get the full benefit of walking according to my will. Now watch this. In all of these eight directions from this compass, in essence, here’s what it says. Stop trying to live in this fantasy world of becoming what you want to become, doing what you want to do, being what you want to be in violation of the word of God. That’s a fantasy world. And come back to reality and look at the compass and begin to follow it.
SPEAKER 02 :
Thank you for listening to A Compass for Life’s Journey. If you’d like to know more about Charles Stanley or InTouch Ministries, stop by intouch.org. This podcast is a presentation of InTouch Ministries, Atlanta, Georgia.
