“O Lord, I know that the path of [life of] a man is not in himself; It is not within [the limited ability of] man [even one at his best] to choose and direct his steps [in life]” (Jer. 10:23 AMPC).
The Bible has enough examples of how disobedience causes problems to humanity. We walk into problems without following God’s guidance. When we were unbelievers, we had no idea or perhaps we didn’t bother about the damage we were doing to our future through disobedience – but when you become a born-again Christian, you must start to see from the Bible that if you don’t stop disobeying God’s word, you would face a very dangerous future.
If you read Jeremiah chapter 10 in context, it’s talking about the destruction of Jerusalem because Israel had rejected God. Therefore, the nations will conquer them and send them to captivity. It’s talking about terrible judgment and right in the middle of the prophesy, Jeremiah asked a question, how could this happen? How could the people once favoured by God, and so blessed by God, ever come to a position where God would put them into slavery in Babylon.
And he answered his own question in Jer. 10:23 and said, “O Lord [pleads Jeremiah in the name of the people], I know that [the determination of] the way of a man is not in himself; it is not in man [even in a strong man or in a man at his best] to direct his [own] steps”. This is how tragedy comes. It’s because God did not create us to be self-directed. Lord, I know that none of us are in charge of our own destiny; none of us have control over our own life.
- Thank you for reading our devotional on “God Did Not Create Us To Be Self-Directed”.