Have you ever played follow-the-leader? As a kid, I used to love playing that game with my brother. We’d jump on our bikes, and anything he would do, I would try my best to imitate.  The truth is we never really grow out of that game. We still play it, and eventually we either find ourselves in a place we’re proud of, or in a place we wish we weren’t because of who we’ve chosen to follow.

        In Proverbs 16:6 Solomon imparts a piece of wisdom he learned from following his father, David. He says, “By mercy and truth iniquity is purged, and by the fear of the Lord men are going to depart from evil.”

In this verse, Solomon is reminding us that there is hope even for those who have chosen the wrong leader at times. If we’ll allow God to purge our hearts, he will rid them of all the things that can potentially destroy our lives.

The term purge means to set free from impure or unwanted substances. In our case, it means to remove those things that withhold God’s best from us. Solomon says it takes both God’s mercy and truth to rid us of  our iniquities that keep us from walking into God’s path of life and blessing.

Recently Mike Singletary, the coach of the San Francisco 49ers, was talking about the time he spent over the years,  speaking in prisons. He said in every session, he asks the prisoners one thing. He says, “If your father believed in you, challenged you to live your best, encouraged you, and taught you God’s truth, I want you to lift your hand.” Unfortunately, he’s still waiting for the first hand to go up.  

Mike went on to say that in order to change lives, the twenty-first century church needs to pattern itself after the first-century church, which had two things.  It had the love of God necessary to draw people to Christ, and it also had the respect for God’s truth that obviously is lacking in many homes, churches and communities today.

Coach Singletary understood Solomon’s point that our hearts can’t be purged and our lives completely transformed by only accepting one aspect of God’s nature. We need both his mercy and truth at work in our lives.

So, the next time you find yourself in a place you’re ashamed to be in, don’t beat yourself up. We don’t find ourselves in wrong places because we’re terrible people. We find ourselves there because we chose the wrong patterns to follow. The good news is—God in His great mercy  wants to forgive us.  And not only that—he wants us lead us into to a life greater than we could imagine by His truth. .

 He won’t ask “Why do you do that?”or “How did you end up here?” He’ll simply ask you to follow him and allow his love and truth to set you on the right path again. I promise, God can change any home, heal any heart and transform any situation. So together, let’s choose to walk honor’s way!