When does wandering lead us away from God?

Psalm 119:176I have wandered away like a lost sheep; come and find me, for I have not forgotten your commands.

Isaiah 53:6All of us, like sheep, have strayed away. We have left God’s paths to follow our own. Yet the Lord laid on him the sins of us all.

Sheep wander as a matter of course. They are inattentive of their surroundings and focus only on their immediate needs or interests without watching where their choices are leading them. It often takes discomfort or tragedy to alert a sheep that it has wandered and by then, cannot find its way back. Only the shepherd’s voice and efforts bring the sheep back to the flock. We are in many ways like sheep.

1 Timothy 6:10, 21The love of money is the root of all kinds of evil. And some people, craving money, have wandered from the true faith and pierced themselves with many sorrows. . . . Some people have wandered from the faith by following such foolishness. May God’s grace be with you all.

2 Peter 2:15They have wandered off the right road and followed the footsteps of Balaam son of Beor, who loved to earn money by doing wrong.

Although money itself is a neutral and temporal measurement of value, developing a love for it leads to turning away from values that are eternal. When money becomes what we ultimately trust instead of trusting in God, we have wandered away from the true faith and replaced it with a false god.