See if there is any bad thing in me. Lead me in the way you set long ago. - Psalm 139:24 ICB

Two Florida men charted a course and drove their fishing boat out into the Gulf of Mexico. Using the boat’s compass, they headed to deep waters sixty miles offshore where they hoped to catch some fish called groupers. When they arrived, they turned on their depth finder and realized they were nowhere near their target. Oops. One of the men had laid a flashlight near the ship’s compass, and the attached magnet had messed up the reading.

Just as that magnet changed the compass, so our sinful hearts can influence the way we think. Many people in Jesus’s day, for example, thought they were moving in the right direction by refusing to think He was the Messiah (John 7:41–42). The “magnet” that threw off their thinking was bias (which means they already had feelings against Jesus). They were afraid Jesus would damage their religious traditions. They trusted their wrong beliefs. As a result, they plotted to kill the One who had come to save them.

We might have doubts too, and they may throw off our spiritual compass. With God’s help, we can get back on course—trusting what He tells us in the Bible.

Most experts agree that using a compass without also looking at a map is not going to do you any good if you are trying to figure out where you are on a hike or a fishing trip.