“Your word is a lamp to guide my feet and a light for my path.” Psalm 119:105 (NLT)

Happy Friday, everyone. Well, we’re headed towards the Super Bowl and it got me thinking about the measuring sticks. You know, those two posts that they put on the side of the field just to kind of measure where the ball started and where the next first down is. For those of you who know football, you know exactly what I’m talking about.

If you don’t know football, then you need ten yards in order to get a first down and you need a first down if you want to keep playing with the ball. Otherwise you’ve got to give it away. You know, it got me thinking about how we measure ourselves and how we measure our lives. There’s an interesting word that we use when we talk about the Scriptures.

The word is canon. Or sometimes you may have heard that’s used canonical. What are the canonical books of Scripture? That word canon comes from a Greek word, which means to measure up. And it talks about those books that were used by the church and circulated by the church that were recognized as being God’s Word. And God’s Word is a light unto to our path. It really does show some of the deepest parts of our hearts and our motives. And it really is the best measurement to see how we’re doing and where we’re sitting in the game of life.

So, I want to encourage you to take time to sit with God’s Word and to reflect. Sometimes that can be painful because you can see that you might be – to use football language – fourth and a long way.

Well, that’s okay, because there’s good news in that Word as well. It says that the ultimate measurement for you and for me is in our Savior, Jesus. He’s going to help us along the way. He’s going to guide us. He’s going to lead us. And in the places where we fall short, He’s going to take our sins and our failures. He took those to the cross.

And instead, He gives to us the victory. We celebrate that today. I encourage you with these words and pray that you will join me now in this prayer.

Prayer
Lord Jesus, we thank You so much for Your word and for Your light. Your word is a lamp unto our path that shows us where we are.

It shows us where the danger spots are, where we’re off the path. Where we’re on the path. And Lord, direct our steps. Keep us on the path of everlasting life. Thank you, that when we stumble and when we fall and we find ourselves falling short of the standard, You’re there to pick us up. You’re there, Heavenly Father, to forgive us for our failures and our sins. And to renew in us again another day of living on that path that You have won for us, that You have marked out for us.

So be with us, and I pray that You would just bless each and every hearer at the sound of these words today, that they would know how deeply, dearly loved they are by You. We pray this in Jesus’ name, Amen.