LEARNING TO HIT THE MARK
Proverbs 10:17
"He is on the path of life who heeds instruction, but he who ignores reproof goes astray."
I was on a duck hunt in New Mexico a couple of weeks ago, and those of you who know me know that I'm a turkey hunter, not a duck hunter. There's one key difference between shooting waterfowl, and shooting turkeys: you don't shoot at turkeys when they're flying past you at 1,000mph... Needless to say, it took me almost a box and a half of spent shells before I started to hit what I was aiming at.
What I had to learn before I could actually start killing ducks, was that I needed to correct my bad shooting habits. When shooting at a duck, you have to lead your shot quite a bit in front of what you're trying to hit, because the duck is moving so fast. I'm used to shooting at mostly stationary animals, so it was a big learning curve. Thankfully, the other guys on this duck hunt were experienced, and they were able to give me proper instruction in order to figure out where I was lacking. The fact of the matter is that if I was going to do what I went there to do, kill ducks, I would have to change my habits.
You might not notice it at first, but our lives are very similar to duck hunting. The Bible tells us in the book of Romans that all of us have sinned. Or in other words, we all miss the mark. We have two options when it comes to sin. Either keep sinning, and drift farther away from God, or we can allow Him to correct our bad habits so that we can hit what we're aiming for.
It's easy to know when we miss a duck, because it doesn't fall out of the sky. In order to recognize if we are "missing the mark" in our spiritual lives, we have to judge our actions based on the truth: God's Word. The more time that we spend studying Scripture, the more we will begin to recognize the areas of our life that need correction. When we realize what's causing us to miss the target, it's up to us to correct our actions. So in the same way that I had to identify what was wrong with how I was shooting, we need to identify where we are messing up in our own lives. Once we figure that out, then we bring it before the Lord, and take action to correct it.
That's what's so amazing about the Bible, is that all of the solutions to our problems can be l lfound within its pages. We have no excuse to continue missing the mark, when we have the total access to the guide book.
So whether you're missing ducks, or missing the mark in life, there's a simple solution. Figure out the root of the problem, make the correction, and start hitting the target.
Thank you Micah Hulce
Help achieve the mission - GIVE today
Click the button to sign up for Dean’s Daily Devotional. FREE and delivered daily.