Proverbs 1:15: Walking in the valley

“my son, do not walk in the way with them [sinners]; hold back your foot from their paths,”
-Proverbs 1:15

I’ve been reading in Oswald Chambers’ great devotional My Utmost for His Highest lately. Actually, I’m always reading in it lately, since I’ve probably read it through three or four times by now. But it was probably a few weeks ago when I reread one of my favorite subjects of his, which is the difference between the mountain and the valley.

These are figurative, of course. The mountain represents those places we go and things we do just to rest in God, to feed off His Word, to be revitalized. Maybe this is church, or a certain group of friends. Maybe it’s your quiet time. But the temptation is to remain in those places and never go into the valley, which is the lost world, to spread the news about God. We don’t want to do that because the valley is hard!

Chambers explains that a lot better than I do, admittedly. I highly recommend reading it.

C. S. Lewis had a similar idea in The Silver Chair, which is one of his Narnia books. In the beginning, a character named Jill finds herself on a mountain with Aslan, and Aslan tells her everything she needs to know to quickly end the threat to Narnia. Looking down from the mountain, everything seems so clear to her. But then she goes down into Narnia, and things aren’t as clear anymore, and she keeps forgetting Aslan’s words, or see fails to recognize his true meaning until it is too late.

Things get murky in the world. Things get complicated. At least they seem to. Loneliness, greed, pride, or despair gets to us, and we lose our way. Sometimes we just jump on the path of the nearest person, one who seems to care.

It is not hard to focus on Christ right after a moving sermon or when sharing with a small group. But the next day, we forget that focus, and suddenly we are tempted to date that unbeliever, or cheat a little at work, or laugh at the dirty joke with friends.

How do we resist? There is only one way. You can try sheer force of will, but that will betray you. The only way is this:

Therefore, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us also lay aside every weight, and sin which clings so closely, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us, looking to Jesus, the founder and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is seated at the right hand of the throne of God.
-Hebrews 12:1-3

It is He who perfects our faith. It is He who started that faith in the first place. The only help we have in this verse in our run is “looking to Jesus.” That’s all the help we need.

Practically, this means reading the Bible more just on Sunday. It means praying more than just at bedtime. It means talking about Jesus with friends. (It’s really hard to tell a dirty joke when the discussion is always on Christ.) It means praying for focus every time your mind wanders somewhere it should not.

Ultimately, it means having faith in Him, for only He can perfect that faith. Only He has the power to wash us clean from our sins and bestow us with His righteousness.