God makes crooked places straight
I will go before you. And make the crooked places straight. Isaiah 45:2
A crooked path looks like a snake's coil. A Hebrew word for crooked means deceitful, sly, or slippery, and a Greek word for crooked means perverse, wicked, and curved. Physically, crooked paths are like meandering roads which make it difficult to reach a destination and cause us to get lost.
In our lives and our spiritual journeys, a crooked path represents deceit, fear, and wickedness, just like the crafty nature of a snake. "Trust your heart, do whatever your heart desires." This is one of the deceitful lies that the enemy often tells. We have heard this phrase so often that it has become easy to swallow, but yet it is deceitful.
“The heart is deceitful above all things, And desperately wicked" Jeremiah 17:9 The human heart can be deceitful. Sometimes we unknowingly make decisions from our hearts, without asking for God's guidance, and the result is that we ask for God's blessing. We even deceive ourselves and claim that our own decisions are God's will.
God wants us to lead our paths, since He is the one who makes them straight. It comes from a surrendered heart that is submitted to God and believes His guidance; it is a transformed heart that comes with repentance, saying to God, 'Lord, I don't want to walk in my way, I'm lost and distracted, and only you can guide me in the right direction,' and making a U-turn to return to you.”
The key to making the path straight is found in Proverbs 3:5-6, “Trust in the Lord with all your heart, and lean not on your own understanding. In all your ways acknowledge Him, and He will make your paths straight." The antidote to a deceitful heart is trusting the Lord with all our hearts, acknowledging that our own minds and hearts could be deceitful, surrendering all our ways, and trusting in His goodness and guidance.
In God's way, the path is straight but narrow, it is like the "road less traveled", yet it is a focused path with God's guidance, as He promises that every valley will be exalted, every mountain will be brought low and every rough place will be made smooth as the way of the righteous.
Blessing prayer: May the Holy Spirit guide us at all times so that we can walk your straight path and forsake our misleading and deceitful hearts. In Jesus' name, Amen
