Keep Walking — The Path Continues
By M.T. Clark — P-2029 | 07/30/2026 – Today’s Audio Podcast
Today’s Message on YouTube:
Today’s photo of a pair of tire ruts running like a footpath through a golden field of grain, a dark green tree line across the far edge, and a cloudless blue sky overhead comes to us from yours truly, as I captured this serene scene just off of Waite Road in Easton, NY, on July 23rd, 2022.
Well, it’s Thursday, and I share this pathway photo as a reminder and an encouragement to get on, or to stay on, the path of Christian discipleship. The way may run long, and the destination may be out of sight, but you keep moving forward, trusting that God is leading you on toward more of Himself.
When I got saved in 2010, the Lord filled me with the joy of my salvation, but He also put a burning desire in my heart to follow Him earnestly with the way I lived my life – not to be a hypocrite, to be a “real Christian”. In the beginning, that just meant going to church and reading the Bible and praying in the mornings. I had a lot to learn, but at first, I thought that these token spiritual disciplines were all that were required of me to be a Christian. I had a desire to turn from my sins of drunkenness and sexual immorality, I guess, but I didn’t think I was capable of walking away from them, and that what made grace so amazing was that I could be accepted even though I was addicted.
It turns out that I was right and wrong. Yes, I was accepted the moment I put my faith in Jesus as my Lord and Savior – addictions and all. But as the Holy Spirit led me to know God more through reading the Bible, God’s word convicted me about drunkenness and sexual morality. The passages of Scripture that tell us that people who practice these things would NOT inherit the kingdom of God cut like a knife. I intellectually knew I had to repent of these sins but didn’t think I could. So, I spent years of my early walk trying to clean up my act but was too ashamed to tell anyone I was trying, because I fell down so often, often willingly. I didn’t think I could be free of these things, and frankly, I wasn’t sure I wanted to be free.
But the Lord led Pastor Bob Costello to start a Christian Recovery ministry at my church, and when he announced it, I knew it was time to surrender. So, I repented, went into recovery, and relapsed after two weeks. However, after receiving grace and understanding from the others at the recovery meeting, and because I was so angry for throwing away two weeks of sobriety, I committed myself to laying my substance abuse down for good. It wasn’t easy. Frankly, it was hell. I cried out to the Lord to take away my craving instantly, but He assured me that I could be free if I just followed Him one day at a time. So, I did, and the Lord was faithful to lead me out of the darkness without compromise or relapse ever since. That was eleven years ago.
After that, and the dissolution of my first marriage, I answered the call to lay down my sexual sin in 2018, and He was faithful to lead me into purity ever since. So, I know what it is like to struggle, and I know what it is like to overcome with the Lord’s help. Behind all of this lies the original desire that I had from the day I was saved, to not be a hypocrite – to be a real Christian. I obviously didn’t do that perfectly along the way, and I know that I don’t do it perfectly today.
But I have to say something today about Christian Recovery that I feel needs to be said. The whole idea behind recovery, Christian or otherwise, I would think, is that you no longer give in to the flesh. The alcoholic doesn’t just stop drinking beer or vodka but continues to drink rum and gin. The alcoholic in recovery forsakes alcohol in all its forms. That’s what I would call “real recovery”. Likewise, the person seeking to be clean and sober would abstain from and reject anything that is associated with getting drunk or high.
Unfortunately, because the world is desperately wicked and because recovery is hard, more and more people are told that you define your own recovery, and marijuana, THC products, and other so-called medications are offered as an alternative to the addict’s substance of choice. While I advocate progressive victory and freedom, and the use of medication to help someone along the way on their road to recovery, I have to stress that the goal of Christian recovery is to be free of all substances that enslave us.
I thought this obvious, but more and more I hear of Christians who periodically use marijuana to cope during their recoveries, thinking it’s an acceptable thing to do. The world will tell you whatever it wants to tell you, and deceive you, but God’s word tells us that Jesus makes us free indeed. So don’t lie to yourself; instead, renounce the world’s alternative and seek after the freedom that the Lord has for you. It may be a hard road and may take some time to be free of everything; I understand that, but don’t take a blasé attitude, the lesser of your two evils, and don’t encourage other Christians to join you in your chains.
If this convicts you, it should; God has more for you than coping with substances that keep you addicted. God has complete freedom available to all who follow Him and keep going. Speak of the road that keeps going…
Our series, “Freedom Stories,” continues today with the path that keeps going.
Keep Walking — The Path Continues
Scripture pictures the life of the righteous not as a single leap into full daylight but as a sunrise that keeps getting brighter, and that image is full of hope for anyone who feels they’re growing too slowly. Solomon writes in Proverbs 4:18 (NKJV): “But the path of the just is like the shining sun, that shines ever brighter unto the perfect day.”
Notice what kind of picture that is. It isn’t a flashbulb, a single burst of full light and then nothing more. It’s the sun rising, beginning dim and growing steadily brighter through the morning, all the way to the perfect day. The path of the just is progressive, and the direction is always toward more light. – I’ll say it again MORE LIGHT. Forward into more light, that’s our direction.
This is freeing because it gives us permission to be on a journey rather than demanding that we’ve already arrived. We so easily compare our dim early morning to someone else’s bright midday, or to the perfect day we long for, and we grow discouraged that we aren’t further along.
But the verse doesn’t measure the just person by how bright their light is at any given moment. It measures the path by its direction, ever brighter, moving steadily toward the perfect day. A faithful path that’s still dim is still the path of the just, as long as it’s heading toward more light. The question is never whether you’ve arrived. The question is whether you’re still walking toward the sunrise.
This is also why I so often say that every step we take toward the Lord is a step in the right direction. The brightening of Proverbs 4:18 doesn’t happen in one heroic stride but in countless ordinary steps — the daily turning toward God, the small acts of obedience, the quiet choices to set the mind on things above — none of which feels dramatic in the moment but all of which add up to a path that shines ever brighter over time.
The enemy would love for you to despise the slow, steady brightening and to quit, or compromise, because you can’t see the perfect day yet. The Lord simply asks you to keep walking, trusting that the One who is the light is faithfully bringing the morning.
So, keep walking, brother and sister. Don’t measure your freedom by whether you’ve reached the perfect day, and don’t quit because the light still seems dim.
The path of the just shines ever brighter; your steady steps are taking you toward more light and not less, and the perfect day is coming. The journey itself, walked with God, is the freedom, and the path goes on.
Keep on walking and talking with God.
— M.T.
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“The views, opinions, and commentary of this publication are those of the author, M.T. Clark, only, and do not purport to reflect the opinions or views of any of the photographers, artists, ministries, or other authors of the other works that may be included in this publication, and do not necessarily reflect the views or positions of any entities the author may represent.”
Encouragement for the Path of Christian Discipleship
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