Tuesday, November 3, 2015
Psalm 119:105 Your word is a lamp to my feet and a light for my path.
KNOW WHERE YOU'RE GOING?
It has to be high on the list of frustrating and frightening. You set out from the trailhead on a hike only to realize two hours later that somewhere along the way you missed a signpost and now you have no idea of where you are or how to get back on the right path. There are countless stories of people who blindly forge ahead to the point of exhaustion, but only succeed in becoming more hopelessly disoriented. In the worst case, it can even be life-threatening.
Do you ever get that "lost" feeling on your hike through life? Did you have a certain trail in mind when it comes to career, relationships, and things you wanted to accomplish, but now you look around and the scene is nothing like you expected? Thinking back, perhaps you can identify wrong turns along the way. Paul did. He wrote, "For what I want to do I do not do, but what I hate I do" (Romans 7:15). But now what? You can't retrace your steps and undo the sins of the past. Where do you go from here? It's all new territory.
Some live by the philosophy that if you just forge ahead, hopefully somehow it will all work out and you will arrive at a good destination. But blinded by sin, no one finds their own way to safety. Rather, Jesus says, "I am the way and the truth and the life ... Whoever follows me will never walk in darkness, but will have the light of life."
Don't follow your own instincts or the directions of others who are just as lost by nature. Trust that Jesus knows the way. He's traveled it already. He followed the path of obedience to God. He went to the cross in your behalf that you might be raised with Him to new life.
Let's keep our eyes on Him, live that life of faith today, and anticipate the heavenly life to come. Then we'll always know exactly where we are going!
