In all your ways acknowledge him, and he will make straight your paths. Proverbs 3:6

Seek Him, listen for His voice, follow Him, and remember Him. Acknowledge Him, and He will make your paths right, sturdy, smooth, and straight. Ignore Him, and you will find yourself completely directionless and lost. 

I love how this verse becomes even clearer and deeper when it’s tied to a passage like Psalm 23. Our good shepherd lets us rest along the riverbanks. He restores our souls and leads us on righteous paths. But he doesn’t stop there. He also walks with us in the darkest valleys, protects us from evil, comforts us even in the presence of our enemies, and makes our paths straight. When we look to Him, our paths aren’t only straight in the pastures, but they are straight in the valleys, too. 

We are all looking for direction. We are lost without Him—defenseless against danger. Whether it’s by the ways of the world or our own selfish desires, the truth is if we aren’t led by Jesus, we are being led by something else, and it’s actually leading us astray. No matter how good it may seem, or how trustworthy it may appear, if it’s not our Good Shepherd walking in front of us, we aren’t being led to good places.

His thoughts are higher than our thoughts and His ways are higher than our ways. 

Just prior to verse six, we are urged not to lean on our own thoughts and wisdom, but with our entire being, to trust in the Lord, to follow after, and think of Him often. Then, we are told to never think of ourselves as wise but rather to turn away from who we naturally are, turning instead to the Lord Jesus and becoming who He intended us to be. This is where we will find healing, restoration, and refreshment. 

Lost sheep need a Good Shepherd, and ours is worth following. He guides us to springs of living water. He refreshes and restores our soul. We need Him, and good news—He wants us. This is the greatest news! He walked the road to Calvary so that we could walk in the newness of life.