Driving along with my GPS, I realised the lovely lady in the box said I was to turn left, but I just turned right… probably out of habit, to be honest.
I came to the next turn and again, she wanted me to go left, and I wanted to go right. I know this area, so it makes no sense to go left…
We get to the next turn, and I am kinda waiting for her to sulk, or not give a direction, or give some snarky remark like “Do what you want! (I could have been a really cool A.I. but now I am stuck with you in the GPS!)”
But no… She just adjusted a new route and gave a new direction to follow.
Soon, However, I came to a road closure and had to take a detour which took 20 minutes longer than if I just followed the GPS from the beginning.
But then… as I reached the destination…
There was no, “I told you so” or ”Why do you never listen to me!?”, just an excited “You have arrived at your destination!”
Which gave me pause.
”The heart of man plans his way,
but the Lord establishes his steps.”
(Proverbs 16:9 ESV)
I have made a lot of missteps in my life. Decisions and choices I regret. But somehow, somewhere… over time, they all seem to be redeemed. I end up at the destination I am supposed to be at.
So I wondered… In Genesis, God told Abraham (then still called Abram):
“The LORD had said to Abram, “Go from your country, your people and your father’s household to the land I will show you.”
(Genesis 12:1 NIV)
God says to Abram that “I will guide your step until you get there”. We are supposed to be united with God in our moves, our plans, and our day-to-day life, but if we sit and wait (when God has not instructed us to do so!), we are literally going nowhere!
“I am God, your God, who teaches you how to live right and well. I show you what to do, where to go.”
(Isaiah 48:17 The Message)
But what if I choose wrong? What if I make a mistake?
Don’t worry, You probably will. 😁 … And like I was 20 minutes late, there will be consequences. It is the natural order of things…
But here is what I have noticed: Making a mistake while trying to follow God, and searching Him out on your life choices, rarely has the impact of switching off the “GPS” (God’s Positioning Service 😉) and trying to go it alone.
Make the plan, start to move. If I make a misstep, God will redirect my road, my path, so that I get to where I need to go. (How do I know? He has done it in the past! And just like the lady in the car’s GPS, there were no snarky comments, no sighs of disappointment, just a new plan, and a new road to follow with exciting new scenery we had never seen before!)
I find myself paralyzed by the fear of the unknown or the fear of making a bad decision. But it is an irrational fear because God says HE WILL DIRECT MY STEPS
So now I have to decide:
– Is God a Liar?
or
– Is God incapable or unable to make good in my life?
or
– Do I believe that God will direct my steps in a way that will Glorify His Name?
I am struggling to find that testimony in the bible, books or the internet which starts off with “I made every right decision” but I am flooded with testimony after testimony that reads “…and then I decided to trust God…” or “… and then I gave up trying to do it all by myself…”
This is also God’s Character: God is Faithful
