Seek the Old Paths

There is a phrase I have used for a long time — seek the old paths. It comes straight out of Jeremiah 6, and it captures something God's people have always needed to hear. The world keeps telling us that the old ways are outdated, that newer is better, that we ought to find our own way. But God says otherwise.

Stand in the Ways and See

"Thus says the Lord: 'Stand in the ways and see, and ask for the old paths, where the good way is, and walk in it; then you will find rest for your souls.' But they said, 'We will not walk in it.'" (Jer 6:16)

God through Jeremiah was calling His people back. They were not atheists — they were religious people who still showed up to worship at the temple. But they had turned to idols, given themselves over to covetousness, and sunk so deep into immorality that, as God put it, "they were not at all ashamed, nor did they know how to blush" (Jer 6:15). They were saying "peace, peace" when there was no peace (Jer 6:13-14), trusting in the temple as a physical talisman — "The temple of the Lord, the temple of the Lord" (Jer 7:4) — while living any way they pleased. God was pleading with them: walk in the good way, and it will be well with you. They refused. And the city fell.

The Way of Man Is Not in Himself

Why does it matter so much that we seek God's path and not our own? Jeremiah answered that plainly: "O Lord, I know the way of man is not in himself; it is not in man who walks to direct his own steps." (Jer 10:23)

We simply cannot figure it out on our own. That is not an insult — it is just true. And it means we have to go to God's word to know where to stand and where to walk. Psalm 119 verse 105 puts it this way: "Your word is a lamp to my feet and a light to my path." Paul made the same point to the church at Corinth when he urged them not to "think beyond what is written" (1 Cor 4:6). Stick to the old paths where the good way is. Don't wander past what God has said.

That same walking-in-God's-way language carries straight into the New Testament. Colossians tells us: "As you therefore have received Christ Jesus the Lord, so walk in Him, rooted and built up in Him and established in the faith, as you have been taught, abounding in it with thanksgiving." If you are a Christian, you have joined forces with Jesus. You are in Him. Walk that way.

First Give Yourself to the Lord

The reading from 2 Corinthians 8–9 this week offers a beautiful picture of what walking in the old paths looks like in practice. Paul is describing the generosity of the Macedonian churches — Christians who gave beyond their ability to help suffering saints in Judea. What was the secret to their giving? Paul says it plainly in verse 5: "they first gave themselves to the Lord, and then to us by the will of God." (2 Cor 8:5)

Once you have given yourself to the Lord, giving of what you have is not a difficult calculation. It is just the next natural thing. And the measure is not the dollar amount — it is the willingness. "For if there is first a willing mind, it is accepted according to what one has, and not according to what he does not have." (2 Cor 8:12) God is not asking for what you do not have. He is asking for a heart that has already been surrendered to Him. When that heart is in place, even a widow's two small coins can outgive everyone else in the room.

In Closing

The promise in Jeremiah 6:16 is still standing: seek the old paths, walk in the good way, and you will find rest for your souls. That rest is not just about eternity — it is about the peace and wholeness that comes from living the way God designed us to live. The secret to all of it — the walk, the giving, the life that honors God — begins in the same place it always has: first give yourself to the Lord. Everything else follows from that.