Your life is a journey, and it’s made of millions of small steps. You choose which direction to step—one direction leads to good things, the other leads to bad things. These steps are so small, and you take so many, that you usually don’t care much about any one step. It’s no big deal, you think. Just one step.

But how life-changing a single step can be! Every step points in a direction. One step leads to more steps. It leads away from other steps. It can put you on a different path. It can determine failure or success. It can mean life or death.

Both sin and righteousness start with one step.

Lucifer’s attempt to dethrone God started with one step. His sin began when, just for a minute, he harbored an attitude of selfishness. Then he allowed vanity to lead to self-righteousness, to a sense of entitlement, to resentment, to bitterness, to hostility—step-by-step down a dark path. Then he spread his attitude. He persuaded one angel here, two angels there.

Those angels’ discussions led to disagreement, which led to division, which led to insubordination, which led to defiance, which led to mutiny, which led to revolt, which burst into war. This sequence of steps turned the Light Bringer into the Adversary, and millions of brilliant, fiery angels into dark demons.

As with Lucifer, so with us: Sin always starts in the mind. We conceive it, we mull it, it grows, and it bursts into a sinful act, which leads to death (James 1:14-15).

A terrible bad habit starts with one decision to take the easy route. Going broke starts with the first foolish purchase. A ruined friendship begins with a single hurtful comment. A limited future starts with a lazy day that leads to a lazy week that leads to a lazy academic career.

That first small step in the direction of sin is always easy to justify. “Haven’t you often wanted to do something you knew you really ought not?” Herbert W. Armstrong asked in the January 1982 Good News. This article answered the question, “How far may I safely go in doing what I want but know I ought not?” He writes: “And haven’t you sometimes gone at least part way, thinking that perhaps if you didn’t go all the way in doing wrong, you might ‘get away with it’? …

“Going that first part way is already committing the act spiritually—according to the spirit or intent of the law! When you did that you were already guilty in God’s sight.”

How critical that one step is! God recognizes where that small first step leads. Do you? That is why He commands that we flee fornication rather than flirt with it (1 Corinthians 6:18).

Here is how Mr. Armstrong illustrated the importance of each step in a Pastor General’s Report. “One is walking along in a thickly wooded forest on a moonless pitch-dark night. But just ahead of him is an experienced guide with a lighted lantern,” he wrote. “If he follows that lighted lantern he will be led safely out of the woods. But if he turns aside just a step or two and hesitates, the light continues on out of his sight. Then he is really lost” (Dec. 5, 1980).

Psalm 119 says that God’s word “is a lamp unto my feet, and a light unto my path.” It guides you out of error and into the light of truth. If you follow it, you’ll stay on that lighted path. If you reject it, you’ll be in the dark. And the more steps you take in the dark, the harder it will be to find your way back to that lighted path. That’s why, when you recognize that first wrong step, repent immediately and get back on the path right away!

The good things we want in life also come a step at a time. Small steps can take you off the path, but small steps also carry you forward to your goal. The Israelites made it from slavery in Egypt to the Promised Land one step at a time. God is calling you to be born into His Family! But you fulfill that calling through small daily tasks: prayer, study, work, fellowship, time management; caring for your body, mind, family, relationships and possessions.

However overwhelming your objective may seem, recognize the power you have right now to take one step toward it. Academic excellence can start with one evening of resisting television temptation. A championship can begin with an extra day at the weight room. Money in the bank can start with declining one impulse purchase; a healthy diet can come from one resisted temptation; a close friendship can bloom from a single compliment. Force yourself to do the first small thing, and you will be moving in the right direction—one step at a time.

God tells us to be attentive to our every step in Proverbs 4:25-27: “Let thine eyes look right on, and let thine eyelids look straight before thee. Ponder the path of thy feet, and let all thy ways be established. Turn not to the right hand nor to the left: remove thy foot from evil.”

So whatever your next step, recognize the power of that simple, everyday choice you are about to make.