“O Lord, I know the way of man is not in himself; It is not in man who walks to direct his own steps.” (Jeremiah 10:23)
What causes a group of individuals to follow the instructions of someone who is evil to take the lives of others we ask? What causes hundreds of people to walk away from life as they knew it and travel to a distant place and ultimately take their own lives under the direction of their leader we ask?
History is replete with example after example of folks who were misguided in their thinking … in their knowledge … in their zeal! Actually, the Bible is replete with example after example of the same missteps that proved to be costly!
From time to time it is good for us to better understand the meaning of a word in order to realize its worth to us. So, we will show the meaning of ‘misguided’ along with other words that are considered synonymous with it.
Misguided defined: “Having or showing faulty judgment or reasoning. …Erroneous, fallacious, unwarranted, unfounded, unsound, misplaced, misconceived, ill-advised, inadvisable, ill-judged, unwise, injudicious, imprudent, rash, foolish.”
Additional synonymous words would include “misinformed, misled, misdirected, laboring under a delusion, wrong, mistaken, deluded.” (Oxford Dictionary)
As we can clearly see … it is not a good thing for us to be misguided in our thinking or in our faith or service to the Lord! As the prophet of old states we don’t know enough to be the judge of what is best for us … whether in our personal lives, our worship and service to the Lord … or life period!
“We all want progress, but if you’re on the wrong road, progress means doing an about-turn and walking back to the right road; in that case, the man who turns back soonest is the most progressive.” – C.S. Lewis
Good thoughts don’t you think! Yes, yes they are. Now let us hear from God’s Word of the danger of being misguided. The apostle Paul penned by inspiration these words, “Brothers, my heart’s desire and prayer to God for them is that they may be saved. For I bear them witness that they have a zeal for God, but not according to knowledge.” (Romans 10:1,2)
What was the problem that Paul was addressing? Very simply, his fellow countrymen were confused in their thinking, reasoning and ultimately in what was truth! Paul would know full-well about this in his own life. Before his conversion he was guilty of having a misguided zeal. Where did it lead him … because of what he believed to be right he viewed Jesus Christ and those who chose to follow Him as enemies of his faith and that of his fathers! Persecution, arrests, prisons, deaths … all because of a misguided faith!
We must all be very careful not to be the one who misguides or the one who becomes misguided! We must be most diligent not to allow the secular innovations and styles of the world to invade and capture the holy and sacred things and ways of the Lord!
The Titanic was supposed to be unsinkable, but it proved to be completely sinkable not because of the water around it … because of the water in it! The greatest pursuit that any of us can engage in is to know the God of Heaven and Earth better. The better we come to a proper knowledge of God’s Word, the better we can become in sharing “the unsearchable riches of Christ” to a lost, dark and dying world!
Bill Fairchild, Jr.
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