“Set up road markers for yourself; make yourself guideposts; consider well the highway, the road by which you went” Jeremiah 31:21.

The Jewish exiles, consigned to seventy years of captivity in a foreign land, might not know the way home when the time came. A highway familiar to their parents and ancestors would be unknown to some who would be born in the land of captivity. Markers placed by those going in to captivity would be invaluable to those returning seventy years later.

Road markers and guideposts are key in tracking our spiritual progress. As an old hymn states, “Prone to wander, Lord, I feel it, prone to leave the God I love.” Our natural human tendency is to wander away from the highway of devotion and faithfulness. Unless there are markers to track where we have been in faithfulness, we will never know when we have wandered away.

Central to all of this is repentance. Repentance is the prodigal son who “came to himself” (Luke 15:17), and changed his mind about the direction of his life, knowing that he had wandered far away from his father. Guideposts help us remember where we have been, and are essential to returning when we repent.

The church at Ephesus was admonished by Jesus to “Remember therefore from where you have fallen; repent, and do the works you did at first” Revelation 2:5. We would do well today to remember moments of spiritual fervor and devotion, and measure where we are today by such times. Have I gradually gotten away from times of personal Bible study and prayer? Am I less passionate about the salvation of others? Has my church attendance and participation become less frequent? And, as the lyrics to another song state, “Oh Lord, please light the fire That once burned bright and clear Replace the lamp of my first love.” Remember and return.

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