The Direction Before The Decision

SPEAKER_00 0:01

Gentlemen, every day is a battle. A battle for your faith, your family, and your purpose. The men who stand strong don't prepare when the battle arrives. They prepare before it begins. Welcome to the men's morning devotional. Let's get into God's word. It's time to man up.

Chris Alessi 0:26

All right, men, good morning. Welcome to day four, Thursday. We have been focusing on Proverbs 7 all week, and by now you've already heard me say we can share this with other men, and hopefully you've been able to do so. But we really are going to move into the full body of the chapter of chapter 7. Solomon shifts from instruction to illustration. He tells a story, maybe an allegory, but the story he's telling is very vivid and sobering. He describes a young man, and the first thing he tells us about him isn't what he did, but where he was looking. So here's your man up moment for this Thursday. Here's our scripture for today, Proverbs 7, 6 through 9. At the window of my house I looked out through the lattice, and I saw among the simple, I noticed among the young men a youth lacking sense, passing along the street near her corner, taking the road to her house in the twilight, in the evening, at the time of night in darkness. So Solomon is building the story. He's watching from the window and he sees a lot of young people, but he notices one young man who's not in trouble yet, but he's heading toward it. He's passing near her corner. He's taking the road toward her house. It's twilight. At this point, he hasn't done anything wrong. He's just walking in her direction. And Solomon, with the eyes of a wise father, can already see where that road ends. So two things stand out. First, the young man is described as lacking sense, not talent or strength, opportunity, or certainly not lacking good intentions. He's just lacking sense. In Proverbs, this idea of sense is the practical wisdom that reads a situation correctly and acts accordingly. That's why we call it common sense. We feel like if you're in this room, everybody should be able to read the room. But this young man, unfortunately, he can't see what Solomon can from the window. He doesn't recognize the danger in the direction. The second thing that we catch is the timing. Notice it, it's a twilight at evening in the time of night in darkness. This isn't just an accident of scheduling, it's unfortunately a choice of environment. The young man has put himself in a place where the light is low, and the consequences are harder to see. Listen, us men, we do this all the time. Maybe not with geography, but with the conditions we allow in our lives. The late night phone in a dark room, or that unaccountable trip where we go alone. The conversation that slowly moves somewhere it shouldn't. Wrong paths almost never start with a wrong decision. Just a wrong direction taken in low light. But the guarded man, the man we've been building all week, a man who keeps wisdom and watches wisdom keep him, that man knows his own vulnerabilities well enough to manage his directions, not just his decisions. He doesn't trust himself to make the right call at the corner. He doesn't get anywhere near the corner. So here's your man-up challenge for this week. Ask yourself honestly, what directions am I currently walking in that are heading somewhere? I don't want to end up. Maybe not full-fledged decisions just yet, but directions, a pattern, a habit, a regular environment. Name it, and then take one step to redirect it before the corner becomes a choice you can't take back. Let's pray. Lord, I pray you'd give us the sense that this young man was lacking, the sense to read our directions, not just our decisions. Show us where we're drifting toward corners we should avoid. Lord, we want to be men who guard our paths before the temptation arrives, not after. Help us, Father. In Jesus' name. Amen.

SPEAKER_00 4:42

All right, gentlemen, you've heard God's word. Now go live it. Lead well, stand strong, honor God in everything you do. Share this devotional with another brother. Remember, every day is another opportunity to man up.