I will lift up my eyes to the hills - From whence comes my help?  My help comes from the LORD, Who made heaven and earth. He will not allow your foot to be moved (not let your foot slip - NIV); He who keeps you will not slumber. Behold, He who keeps Israel shall neither slumber nor sleep. The LORD is your keeper; the LORD is your shade at your right hand. The sun shall not strike you by day, nor the moon by night. The LORD shall preserve you from all evil; He shall preserve your soul. The LORD shall preserve your going out and your coming in from this time forth, and even forevermore. - Psalm 121:1-8 NKJV. 

Uphold my steps in Your paths, that my footsteps may not slip. - Psalm 17:5 NKJV.

The steps of a good man are ordered by the LORD, and He delights in his way. - Psalm 37:23 NKJV.

In China, a wooden footpath is being built on a mountain cliff with the ground thousands of feet below. If the workers were to slip, there would be nothing below to break their fall. The current footpath project, is being built in Hunan Province on Shifou Mountain; and the footpath will be nearly two miles long when completed. The workers must drill holes into the mountain for wooden supports to be placed for the footpath. It is a very dangerous job; however, the workers do wear safety ropes which would keep them safe if they were to slip and fall. One of the workers, Yu Ji, has been building footpaths like this for ten years and he says, "...I don't feel it's so different from any other job. It's not as dangerous as people think. You just wear the ropes, and then everything is okay." (Orange News 06.21.11)

Seeing a photo of the footpath that the workers in China are building, makes me think that I would not want to even attempt to walk on the wooden footpath. There are spaces in between the wooden poles that serve as the path, and all you would see below, would be air for thousands of feet. Even after the path is built, it is doubtful that there will be much traffic on the thing.

Life at times, seems to be much like that precarious mountain footpath. One misplaced step, and everything can fall apart. One misplaced step, and life as you know it will begin to unravel. One misplaced step, and all that you love begins to disappear. Give in to the temptation to have an affair, and you can lose your wife, or your husband along with your financial stability. Give in to temptation, and shoot up, or smoke that drug, or pop that pill; and you can lose your family, your money, your possessions, even the shirt off your back. Give in to financial pressures, rob a bank (happened to a friend I went to school with), and lose your freedom for many years. Turn the steering wheel of your vehicle the wrong way, at the wrong time, and you can end up in a hospital or worse. 

The possibilities for bad outcomes in the scenarios of life are endless. If we want to survive and thrive in life; we need to do what the builders of those mountain footpaths do. We need to hold onto the safety rope. The Psalmist tells us how to do that: “I will lift up my eyes to the hills - From whence comes my help?  My help comes from the LORD, Who made heaven and earth.” To keep our feet from slipping in life, we need God's help for every step we take. To keep our feet from slipping we need guidance from God's Word, “Direct my steps by Your word, and let no iniquity have dominion over me (Psalm 119:133).”

Wrap the safety rope of God's Word around every aspect, every part, every area of your life; then, you will find the supernatural confidence to live the abundant life (John 10:10) that God wants you to live.