How to stay on course

Senator Bill Nelson trained for and flew on a six-day space shuttle mission aboard the Columbia just prior to the Challenger disaster. In his book Mission, he explains how difficult it is to maintain a proper orbit in space. There’s no resistance in space, so an astronaut can literally turn that huge orbiter over by himself. To maintain a proper orbit, the onboard computers constantly make course and altitude corrections by firing small rockets, which make minute adjustments, while larger jets burn fuel to make major adjustments. These rockets are critical, for if they don’t consistently fire at the right time, the space vehicle can veer from its orbit and go tumbling into outer space or crashing into Earth’s atmosphere. There’s an important lesson here for each of us. Left to ourselves, we tend to veer out of our spiritual orbit into lukewarmness and indifference. Or worse—we end up in sin and rebellion. That’s when the rockets of prayer and Bible study, “fired” on a continuous and consistent basis, help us to keep our course correct and prevent our lives from spinning out of spiritual control. Bible study and prayer go together. You should pray before you read the Bible to ask God to help you understand it. And you should pray after you read it to ask God to help you apply what He has told you. Like a faraway lover, God’s love letter to you is the Bible, and prayer is the telephone you pick up to talk back to Him. That’s why it’s crucial to maintain your daily prayer and Bible study.