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Guarding Your Ways

In Psalm 39:1, we are given an important warning,

I said, “I will guard my ways, Lest I sin with my tongue; I will restrain my mouth with a muzzle, while the wicked are before me.”

The Hebrew word translated “ways” in this passage literally means a well-trodden path. It paints the picture of a pathway that has been walked down so many times that a groove has been worn in that path.

The psalmist is drawing our attention to something that has been repeated again and again, a response that has been so often repeated that it has become engrained in our behavior—a habit.

You have probably heard the saying, “He’s set in his ways,” meaning it is not likely you are going to change the way a person acts in certain instances. The “ways” are habits, attitudes, and responses that aren’t likely to change without a very powerful motivation or without some sort of an encounter with God.

I think virtually every habit we have initially began with a thought. Sow a thought; reap an action. Sow an action; reap a habit. Sow a habit; reap a character. Sow a character; reap a destiny. It all goes back to a thought that perhaps should have been dealt with, but wasn’t.

Take some time today to consider your thoughts. Are you giving way to thoughts that will lead to ungodly habits? If so, give those thoughts to God and ask Him to help you think the thoughts that will lead to godly habits.