When I was a teen-ager, I had to go to an orthodontist to get my teeth straightened. Of Greek origin, the word ‘ortho’ means “straight,” or “right.” There was something wrong with my teeth—the braces made them “right.” Orthopedic shoes are made for people who may have something wrong with their feet; the shoes make their feet “right.”
The old English word “upright” is the Greek word “orthopodeo” combining the words “straight” or “right” with the word “foot.” The Bible commands us to be upright, which means, quite literally, “right-footed.” While the word “upright” is used only once in the New Testament (Gal. 2:14), it is used many times in the Old. God commends Job as a perfect and upright man: he was rightly related to God. Significantly, after King David took a wrong moral turn in his life, he asked God to “renew a right spirit within me” (Ps. 51:10). Solomon uses the word for a person on a journey: “if you acknowledge the Lord in all your ways, the Lord will make your path straight [right] (Prov. 3:6). In other words, you won’t get lost—you will always be going the right way.
So, if you want to follow Jesus, you must be ‘right-footed.’ And if you are consistently right-footed, God will even turn your right foot into a “hinds” foot. (The hind is a female deer that is able to move easily across rocky terrain without losing its footing.) “He makes my feet like hinds' feet, and sets me upon my high places” (Ps. 18:33). Don’t you wish being upright was as easy as wearing orthopedic shoes!? You may be tired of tripping over your left feet, but God is more than able to keep you from stumbling (Jude 24 NLT) and lead you on the right path (Ps. 16:11).
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