How is the Alignment?

In order to keep a motor vehicle and proper running order, one must regularly do maintenance checks. These include oil changes, brake and steering fluid levels checks and among other things, we check the alignment. Periodically, as I drive down the road, I will briefly take my hands off the wheel to see how the alignment is. (This is always done when there are no cars nearby.) When I take my hands off the wheel, several outcomes can occur. First the car can continue on in a straight line indicating that the alignment is good and no adjustment is currently necessary. It can also veer slightly to one side or the other yet remain relatively straight. This is the time to begin watching and checking more frequently. This slight turn does not yet cause difficulty for the driver while steering the car. It is an indicator that something is beginning to go wrong. A minor alignment will bring it back to a perfect straight line.
Unattended to, this same car will then begin to veer more sharply to either side. It is now time to be sure that correction is made to the vehicle. If the car is not taken to a mechanic who can adjust the alignment at this stage, more serious problems begin to happen. Eventually the vehicle will shake and become quite difficult to steer in the direction that the driver desires. This difficulty to steer properly can ultimately lead to a crash and the results could be serious and even deadly. All of this can be prevented by regular checks and alignment adjustments.
In our daily walk with God, we must also check to see that we are in alignment with His Word and character. We each have our own personalities and desires and sometimes these can become mixed with the desires and will of God. If we find that we are veering off a little toward our own desires and not God’s, it is time to have the alignment adjusted. Finding our lives veering off the direction that God has planned, we must present our wills before our Creator. We bring the sin that is in our life to the Lord. Then we allow Him to forgive and reset is into the direction that He has for us. Like driving a vehicle that has just been adjusted by the mechanic, we can then walk forward being directed by God.
God will align us by His Word. “Your word is a lamp to my feet and a light to my path.” (Psalm 119:105 AMP) Regular checks will keep us following God's plan and pliable to His mighty hand to steer us. We can keep this alignment by continually learning and truly knowing the Scriptures. “With my whole heart have I sought You, inquiring for and of You and yearning for You; Oh, let me not wander or step aside [either in ignorance or willfully] from Your commandments. Your word have I laid up in my heart, that I might not sin against You.” (Psalm 119:10-11 AMP) Obedience keeps us aligned with God’s will.

Once we have gone to the Lord and confessed our sins, we will receive direction from His Word. We must trust God and allow Him to steer our lives. “Lean on, trust in, and be confident in the Lord with all your heart and mind and do not rely on your own insight or understanding. In all your ways know, recognize, and acknowledge Him, and He will direct and make straight and plain your paths.” (Proverbs 3:5-6 AMP) He will sometimes steer us through the encouragement and wisdom of others. “Where there is no counsel, purposes are frustrated, but with many counselors they are accomplished.” (Proverbs 15:22 AMP)

We can receive directions for life in the same manner in which Jesus did while He walked the earth. “So Jesus answered them by saying, I assure you, most solemnly I tell you, the Son is able to do nothing of Himself (of His own accord); but He is able to do only what He sees the Father doing, for whatever the Father does is what the Son does in the same way [in His turn].” (John 5:19 AMP) We will do this by laying down their own desires to be God’s servant to others. “No one has greater love [no one has shown stronger affection] than to lay down (give up) his own life for his friends.” (John 15:13 AMP) Following these principles we will only require minor adjustments. We will not get to the point where we are difficult to steer by the Lord.

When necessary we will also receive correction from the heart of our loving Father. “For whom the Lord loves He corrects, even as a father corrects the son in whom he delights.” (Proverbs 3:12 AMP) The correction of God is not always pleasant, but always out of love. “For the Lord corrects and disciplines everyone whom He loves, and He punishes, even scourges, every son whom He accepts and welcomes to His heart and cherishes.” (Hebrews 12:6 AMP) Correction may not always be welcomed by our self-will, but it is always beneficial. This Hebrews passage goes on to say, “For the time being no discipline brings joy, but seems grievous and painful; but afterwards it yields a peaceable fruit of righteousness to those who have been trained by it [a harvest of fruit which consists in righteousness—in conformity to God's will in purpose, thought, and action, resulting in right living and right standing with God].” (Hebrews 12:11 AMP)

Go to the word of God and listen to the Holy Spirit. Receive the correction of the Lord and allow Him to redirect your life each day. Do not allow yourself to veer off so far that it was difficult for the Lord to steer you in the path He has chosen to bless both you and others.