Back to Psalm 119.
Since moving into a part of Sydney I had never lived in previously I have gotten considerable use out of a GPS Navigator in our car. Prior to purchasing the GPS device, I was out one evening visiting a new family that had started attending our Church and got lost. What should have been a 15-20 minute trip turned into a very stressful 70-80 minutes. Getting home was no less an adventure, and took about 50 minutes. The following pay period we invested in a GPS device and travel has been considerably easier.
As I have become more familiar with the area, I rely on the GPS less often. This doesn’t lessen it’s value, as I still use it to map out the location of variance in speed limits, safety camera locations and School Zones. When traveling home from the office of an evening I have a choice of about 4 or 5 routes that I take depending on the time and traffic conditions. However, the GPS is insistent on taking the same single route each time regardless. I usually ignore it, and after a few commands to “turn a-round” it recalculates the route from my new position. Occasionally, when I go somewhere new, and I know how to get to the area but not the specific address I will leave the GPS off until the very last minute in the hope that I haven’t gone too far in the wrong direction. After all, men don’t like asking or taking directions, even from machines 
The tendency to not follow directions is something that is prevalent in most of us when it comes to spiritual guidance. Like the owner of a new GPS, a new believer is often keen to read as much of the Bible as often as possible. They find, within the scriptures, a light and a guide that leads them in the way everlasting. They relish the time spent reading, praying, listening to sermons, participating in Bible Studies, small groups and conventions because in each of these they are increasingly exposed to Christ in his Word. They literally hunger for it, exactly as a new baby craves milk. Yet after a while, it is not altogether uncommon, for this enthusiasm to wane. Instead of being a daily source of spiritual nourishment, the Bible is relegated to the “Open in case of emergency” box. Soon afterwards, it is simply not consulted at all, even in times of crisis.
Quoting Harry Blamires, Kent Hughes in his “Disciplines of a Godly Man”, mentions a “religious anorexia, a loss of appetite for growth in Christ” as attributable to Christians dogged refusal to regularly read the Bible.
“God calls us in His Word to a massive and positive discipline of the mind. This can only happen through a profound exposure to and continual immersion in God’s Word, accompanied by the illumination of the Holy Spirit -” (p. 76)
Refusing to read, Hughes adds, is “in effect “editing God” and [you] will never have a fully Christian mind”. (p. 78)
When the Psalmist is seeking guidance and stability, he looks to the scriptures; not to subjective experiences, inclinations, impulses or other dubious phenomena, but to the objective, declaration of Jesus Christ and the will of God found in the Bible. Christians often lament and become angst riddled about making decisions concerning marriage, study, career and ministry. God’s wisdom is readily available to us in the Bible, if only we would pick it up and read it and allow that to influence our thinking instead of anxiously waiting on the advent of a special impulse or blinding vision. Praying and asking God to “direct your steps” whilst making lifestyle decisions is a prayer that he will definitely answer. You won’t know to pray like that if you don’t read the Bible though. Tolle Lege!
Direct my footsteps according to your word; let no sin rule over me. Psalm 119:133 (NIV)
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