I have considered my ways and have turned my steps to your statutes.
Psalm 119:59

My husband is a mechanical engineer. He tunes in to weird car noises, pays attention to warning lights on the dashboard, and senses when wheels are even slightly out of alignment.

Here’s a typical conversation:

Kevin: (frowning) This car is pulling to the right.  We need to have it re-aligned.

Laura (also frowning – but wondering how much realignment will cost) Does it matter? Can’t you just compensate with the steering wheel to drive in your lane?

Kevin: (aghast) Yes! It matters! If the vehicle is out of alignment, the tires won’t wear evenly, you’ll compromise your gas mileage, and the car just won’t achieve maximum performance.

Laura: If you grow weary of teaching, you can be a car-aligner. Is there such a thing?

And then my next thought was the spiritual application from Dr. Hubby’s car realignment sermon: we don’t wear well or perform optimally when we are out of spiritual alignment, either.

“How do we get out of alignment,” you ask? It happens when we:

• Neglect the Word.
• Read the Word, but ignore the Word.
• Allow the world to push us off-course.

Are you a woman of the Word? Would you like to be?

My life has been profoundly changed since I began making my time in the Word a daily priority. In a world of shifting values, competing demands, and relentless expectations to do and be more, God’s Word brings solace, direction, and truth. It brings peace and joy.

In a world of shifting values, competing demands, and relentless expectations to do and be more, God's Word brings solace, direction, and truth. It brings peace and joy. Click To Tweet

But it’s not just enough to read it. You have to listen and obey. It’s the obedience that brings blessing. Listening and obeying is how the Spirit of God takes the Word of God and makes it living and active in real life.

One of the chief ways a car gets knocked out of alignment is hitting a pothole or suffering a collision. The same is true for life. As we hit the potholes of life, or as life collides or crashes into our world, it’s natural to get out of alignment. It’s normal to go along to get along – to compensate by just shifting the steering a little, to stay in the lane without veering off the road. That choice may allow you to get by, but in the long haul, living out of alignment robs you of maximum performance: the peace and joy that abiding in the Word and living for Jesus brings.

Daily time in the Word will keep us in check with those little shifts and bring us quickly back in line with God’s Word. But neglecting the Word and the prompting of the Holy Spirit too long means the veering off course is more pronounced, and the realignment might be more painful.

Are you receiving a daily realignment by abiding in the Word?