Divine Guidance

At the end of August, we were visiting family at a lake house they had rented in Connecticut, USA, when Hurricane Irene struck. We "evacuated" to their home in New York State, and watched the television in horror at the flooding, power outages, and devastation suffered by people all over the east coast, while we were spared all that.

After a couple of days, we heard that the lake level had gone down sufficiently that the road was open again, so we returned to the lake. On the way, we were detoured around a flooded street in one of the towns. Unfortunately, the detour led onto a highway that we didn't want to follow. Gradually, our GPS adjusted to the change in direction, and led us over a different bridge and across unfamiliar territory on slow, winding, back-country roads. At one point we were suspicious that we might simply be travelling parallel to the route that we should be taking, but really, we had no idea where we were, and we were reduced to trusting the GPS and following its instructions implicitly. Otherwise we would have become hopelessly lost.

It was at that point that my mind drew a parallel to the challenge of finding our way through life, attempting to make the right choices, and often feeling like we've made the wrong decisions. In such situations, we need to practice trusting God's guidance, knowing that He sees the end from the beginning and that He's quite capable of giving us the directions that we need for living. In daily prayer, even moment-by-moment prayer, we can submit our queries to Him, and then trust Him to lead our thinking and decision-making in the right direction. Often, little aphorisms that people give us can help, like "If in doubt, don't." The principles of Scripture can also help us to make right choices. For example:

2 Corinthians 6:14a – Do not be unequally yoked together with unbelievers. (NKJV)

Romans 13:8a – Owe no one anything except to love one another. (NKJV)

Colossians 3:23 – And whatever you do, do it heartily, as to the Lord and not to men. (NKJV)

The important thing is to submit both our requests and our wills to God. In other words, when we ask for His guidance, we must also pledge ourselves to follow it when we receive it; otherwise, we will go astray.

Prayer: Lord God, we thank You that we can depend on You to guide us. Help us to learn how to trust You implicitly as we surrender our self-will to follow You only. In Jesus' name, we pray. Amen.

Forward this devotional     Share this devotional on Facebook     Like PresbyCan on Facebook