I lead a young ladies’ Friday night Bible study in my home, and we are journeying through Proverbs together. We started our study with Proverbs 31 and gleaned so many amazing and applicable truths from that chapter. Now we are nearing the end of Proverbs 1 and are using the truths in this chapter to help us become more like the Proverbs 31 woman. It’s an enriching and convicting journey. One phrase in particular grabbed my attention in Proverbs’ first chapter. It was the phrase: Keep your feet. It was mentioned in reference to staying away from the path of sinners, but I wanted to give it a little more of my attention than a mere head nod.

For one thing, ‘keep your feet’ is an imperative statement. This means that it is a command, not a suggestion. ‘To keep’ something means that you are maintaining it, guarding it, giving it your full attention. We have such compound words as ‘shopkeeper,’ ‘gatekeeper,’ ‘innkeeper.’ We also have ‘the keep’ of the castle where things of value or importance are usually held. Thus, when the Lord tells me ‘to keep’ my feet I assume that He wants me to maintain them, guard them, and be fully aware of the path that they are on because they have significance in my growth as an individual. How is this accomplished?

Keeping one’s feet can include the physical care that is given to them, but in this context it has a spiritual reference. We cannot go where our feet do not take us. Think about it: every sin involves movement of the feet. Affairs happen when two people walk to their cars, push the gas pedal down, and walk through that hotel door. Pornography happens when a person walks to his computer and turns it on. Abuse happens when a person rushes forward to get in that first punch. Devotions do not happen when an individual does not walk towards his Bible. However, feet do not have a will of their own. They are simply slaves to the human will; hence, the imperative statement. God is not speaking to the feet; He is addressing the master of the feet – ME.

I am in control of where my feet go and how they are shod. Ephesians 6:15 declares, “and, as shoes for your feet, having put on the readiness of the gospel of peace.” If my feet are properly maintained by being shod with the gospel; if they are exercised on a daily basis with time spent in devotions; if they are protected by walking only on carefully selected paths that are illuminated by the Lamp of God’s Word; then I can move confidently forward in my Christian journey. I do not have to fear the path of evil, even when it occasionally runs parallel to my path and may appear easier than the one I am following. The alternative would mean being in the company of those whose “feet run to evil, and they make haste to shed blood.”

Narrow is the way so you had better keep your feet carefully.