Our guiding light
How many of us when setting off on a journey we haven’t done before switch on the SatNav (GPS)? I love the way it adjusts itself and changes direction when we don’t follow it exactly. I read this analogy this week in the Bible in a Year, written by Nicky Gumbell. So, I am repeating this example, courtesy of Nicky Gumbell. I think it’s a pretty good analogy of our Christian life.
Jesus told His disciples before He went to the cross to lay down His life for us, that He was going away, but ‘I will ask the Father and He will give you another counsellor who will never leave you. He is the Holy Spirit who leads in all truth.’.John 14 v 15. Also again in John 16 v 13 ‘When the Spirit of Truth comes, He will guide you in all truth’ So like the SatNav God guides us along the road and if we make a mistake He is still guiding us, and will gently but surely bring us back on to the right road so that we will end up at the right place. Do we ever doubt that the SatNav will guide us along the right road to arrive at our destination? So, it is with God and He is even more reliable than any SatNav. Proverbs 3 5-6 says ‘Trust in the Lord with all your heart, lean not on your own understanding, in all your ways acknowledge Him and He will make your paths straight’. In other words, If we follow the guidance of Holy Spirit and follow the road He leads us on instead of going it alone and doing it our way, then we will arrive at our destination – heaven. We may take a few detours along the way but if we come back to following the guidance of Holy Spirit we will certainly get there.
In the Old Testament the Israelites didn’t have Sat Nav, but they did have the Lord to lead them as a ‘the Lord led them as a pillar of cloud by day and a pillar of fire by night’ Exodus 13 v 21. So just as God led His people through the wilderness to the promised land so Holy Spirit directs and guides us through the world and to the promised land Heaven. Psalm 48 v 14b reminds us ‘He will be our guide even to the end’. On the way He lets us ‘rest in green pastures, and leads us beside quiet streams’ Psalm 23 v2 NLT.
So why would we go it alone thinking we know the best route. If the Father leads us and guides us by His Holy Spirit and by His Word. Isn’t the journey going to be so much simpler?
Then when we go through trials and tribulations in the world He is right there to guide us through them.
: Terry Walmsley :