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By Stewart Ham

Having a sense of direction makes traveling easy especially when you are in unfamiliar territory. Knowing where north, south, east, and west are located from where you presently stand enables you to know your first step. Even a global positioning system better known as a (GPS) locates your present location before it can disperse direction for your desired new location.
This eliminates unnecessary driving and wasting valuable time. When traveling, having a destination in mind makes planning the trip very easy, however when one strays off the path out of curiosity it is not such a good idea being that one has not planned for spending additional time and possible additional expenses.

Unplanned expenses, along with unplanned time can take away budgeted time and expense that’s been allotted for the primary trip.
Even in life when it comes to educational goals and achievements the same applies, there are those who are focused and remaining on task no matter what distractions are present. They never lost focus, nor got side tracked. When this happens, they finish on time, and are ready to move on to the next level.

However, there are some who made a good start and remained focused for about the first two or three semesters. They lost focus on the routine and began to wander, when one finds themselves wandering, they will also find themselves picking up the procrastination character. It’s the procrastination that keeps you out and off task the most and the longest with this you always put off things for tomorrow that you can do today, and when tomorrow comes the same pattern of life is duplicated and the next thing you know a year or even two has passed and no progress on your original plan has been made.

James 5:19v., 20v. echoes the same message of redirecting those who lost focus and are wandering back to their primary focus.
James explained if there be one, two, or however many that have slipped away from God and their important agenda both spiritual and natural and has picked up doubtful spirits that prohibits them from trusting God, needs to be redirected back to God and the faith.

James explains that when you successfully lead one back to their first work, you have assisted in saving their soul from a spiritual death.
When we pray for them and out of genuine love encourage them, this gets their attention. Genuine love smothers sin that results in one wandering.

James uses the Greek word planao from this word we get the English word planet, this depicts a person wandering off like a planet leaving its orbit. This generally doesn’t happen unless something strikes it to knock it off its axis.
When one begins to wander off course just as the planet leaves its orbit, or a road trip recipient takes side journeys, we need to be restored and redirected back to our rightful place.

This also contrasts with driving intoxicated. Friends will not allow friends to drive drunk, because they can hurt not only themselves but other innocent bystanders. If we allow them to drive in such an intoxicated state, we become worse than our intoxicated friend. When we refuse to redirect, restore or point someone back to their rightful place, this may indicate that we are wondering and have deviated from our first work.

Stewart Ham is the pastor of New Growth Unlimited Ministries Inc. in Aurora.