Your Spiritual GPS

I function best when I know what I'm doing next week, month, even a year from now.  I like stability and order in my life.  When things are up in the air, no schedule...I don't do so well.  Like I stated in a previous devotional, I am a person of habit, I like and work best in my comfort zone.  But what happens when God decides to change things up a little, to push you out of your comfort zone?  We tend to become fearful of the unknown that is before us.  I've been learning in these past two weeks that our "unknown" is God's "working place", this is where miracles happen.  This is where your real trust and faith in the Lord will be tested and tried.  It's in the furnace of the unknown that we have our dross removed and our gold refined.

Abram was put into this furnace of the unknown when he was 75 years old.  God came to him and announced that he was being moved out of his comfort zone into the unknown.

Genesis 12:1  "Now the LORD had said unto Abram, Get thee out of thy country, and from thy kindred, and from thy father's house, unto a land that I will shew thee:"

Can you imagine the Lord coming to you and telling you that you had to leave your country, family and everything you knew and move...where?  God didn't tell him where he was going, just to leave and then He would show him!  Wow, can you imagine the trust that Abram had in his God to do this without even questioning Him! 

Genesis 12:4  "So Abram departed, as the LORD had spoken unto him;  and Lot went with him:  and Abram was seventy and five years old when he departed out of Haran."

Abram had complete faith in the Lord his God, that He would guide and care for him and bring him to the place where he was meant to be.  God honored Abrams faith and made of him a great nation, the nation Israel.  God honors faith and trust that is placed in Him.  I wish I had faith like Abram demonstrated.  God is moving me... to another Province...but with family;  yet I find myself fearful of the unknown.  I'm learning that the secret is keeping our eyes on God and not focusing on the unknown.  Do you want to know something...the unknown is only unknown to us, not to God!  God knows from the beginning right to the end how He is going to lead us.

Psalms 32:8  "I will instruct thee and teach thee in the way which thou shalt go:  I will guide thee with mine eye."

Psalms 48:14  "For this God is our God for ever and ever:  He will be our guide even unto death."

Isaiah 58:11  "And the LORD shall guide thee continually, and satisfy thy soul in drought, and make fat thy bones:  and thou shalt be like a watered garden, and like a spring of water, whose waters fail not."

The Bible tells us that as children of God we are to walk by faith not by sight (2 Corinthians 5:7).  Faith is not something that comes naturally to humans.  We always want to know how, why, when, where, what.  Faith doesn't incorporate those questions.  This is why God says that to be saved we must become as little children.  It's easy for a child to trust, they don't have to have all the answers to the questions that adults consider important. 

Hebrews 11:1  "Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen."

Hebrews chapter 11 is the "Faith Hall of Fame" of the Bible.  We see Abram mentioned in verse 8.

"By faith Abraham (the name God later gave him) when he was called to go out into a place which he should after receive for an inheritance, obeyed;  and he went out, not knowing whither he went."

Just skimming the entire chapter I counted 18 times that it mentions "by faith" or "through faith".  Verse 6 of Hebrews chapter 11 says, "But without faith it is impossible to please Him (God) for he that cometh to God must believe that He is, and that He is a rewarder of them that diligently seek Him."   We cannot please God without faith. 

If we place our faith in the Lord Jesus Christ for salvation, why do we have such a hard time to have faith that He will lead and keep us...even in the unknown?  I liken our faith to GPS.  We program our destination into the GPS and then trust that it will guide us to where we need to go.  It takes us through unknown territory to our desired destination.  Don't you think that GOD is more dependable then the GPS?  He knows the best and safest way to lead us through this unknown world to our Heavenly home.  True faith eliminates fear. 

As a child of God we should daily remind ourselves that "I am crucified with Christ:  nevertheless I live; yet not I but Christ liveth in me:  and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by the faith of the Son of God, who loved me, and gave Himself for me." Galatians 2:20.

How's your Spiritual GPS working?

 

All the way my Savior leads me - What have I to ask beside?

Can I doubt His tender mercy, who through life has been my Guide?

Heav'nly peace, divinest comfort, here by faith in Him to dwell;

For I know whate'er befall me, Jesus doeth all things well;

For I know whate'er befall me, Jesus doeth all things well.

 

All the way my Savior leads me - cheers each winding path I tread,

Gives me grace for every trial, feeds me with the living bread.

Though my wary steps may falter, and my soul a thirst may be,

Gushing from the Rock before me, lo! a spring of joy I see;

Gushing from the Rock before me, Lo! a spring of joy I see.

 

All the way my Savior leads me - O the fullness of His love!

Perfect rest to me is promised in my Father's house above.

When my spirit, clothed immortal, wings its flight to realms of day,

This my song thru endless ages:  Jesus led me all the way;

This my song thru endless ages:  Jesus led me all the way.

 

                                                     Fanny J. Crosby