You would think that the turning point of his life would begin when he gets some answers. But that’s not Asaph’s story.

Asaph wants us to know that the first step to turning our lives around is not finding an answer but making a decision. His mind is driving down this dark road of despair, so he makes a decision. “I am not going any further down this road. I will not go where these despairing thoughts are leading me.” This is where Asaph’s turn begins.

We say, “Give me an answer!” But God says, “Give me a commitment.” We say, “I need to understand.” But God says, “I want you to follow.”

When Jesus went to the garden of Gethsemane, He was struggling with what God the Father was doing. He wanted to know if there was a way to avoid the suffering of the cross. “If it is possible, let this cup be taken from me.” Jesus went into the garden with a question: “Can this cup be taken away?” But He came out of the garden with a decision: “Your will be done.”

Maybe you are facing a crisis in your life right now. You’re confused. If you follow the thoughts that are running in your mind, you will break up your marriage. If you follow the inclinations of your heart, you will no longer be useful in ministry. Don’t go there! Make a decision to stop that way of thinking. Make a decision to stop that way of acting.

You want to turn your life around, but you’ve been waiting for an answer from God. Will you take the first step today, by making a decision?

Asaph was saying, “If I had followed where my confused thoughts were taking me, I would have let everybody down. I would have become the Judas of the Old Testament. I would have betrayed your children.” Asaph doesn’t want to go there, and so he takes himself in hand.

Imagine spending a few days away, and the place where you are staying is off the main road. So you arrive in the evening, and it is pitch dark. You know how this goes:

“Isn’t it up there on the right?”

“No, I think this is it. Turn here.”

“I’m pretty sure it’s a little bit further.”

Well, now you are a mile down the road, and it’s become clear that there are no more places to turn around. Then somebody says, “You know, I think it was back there.”

“Yes, I know. I’m just looking for a place to turn around.” But the road is narrow, and with no houses or driveways, it’s pretty hard to do.

There are some situations in life when turning around isn’t easy. You’ve been looking for a nice opening where you can swing your life around, but you can’t find one. That’s how it was for Asaph. “My feet had almost slipped,” he says. He needed to turn his life around.

Think of a time when you had to stop the direction you were heading spiritually and turn around. What made it so hard for you to do?

Maybe you have coworkers who have very little integrity, and yet they seem to be thriving. You, on the other hand, have tried to do business in a way that honours the Lord, but instead of thriving, you are facing all kinds of trouble. It leaves you saying, “What’s the point?!?”

One of your coworkers, who was fooling around with someone in the office, just got a promotion. But you were faithful to your spouse, and now you lost your job. It leaves you wondering, “Lord, did you bless the wrong person?”

This was Asaph’s problem, and he tells us honestly, “My feet had almost slipped. I was nearly gone. I almost gave up.” If a godly man like Asaph could be tempted like that, we shouldn’t be surprised when it happens to us.

Peter tells us that Christian believers have an enemy—Satan, who is like a roaring lion, prowling around looking to see who he can devour (1 Pet. 5:8). The more useful you are to Christ, the more the enemy will want to devour you. That’s what was happening here. Satan wanted to spoil Asaph’s testimony, end his ministry, and destroy him.

There will be times of special testing in your life, and your future usefulness to Christ will depend in large measure on how you handle yourself when they come. The apostle Paul said, “Take up the whole armour of God, that you may be able to withstand in the evil day, and having done all, to stand firm” (Eph. 6:13). That’s what Asaph did, and God brought him through.

Have you ever felt like giving up on your pursuit of a godly life?