Monday, September 5, 2011

God is our Guide!

One of my favorite quotations from the Old Testament is from Abraham’s servant when he had returned to Abraham’s homeland to take a wife for Isaac.  After experiencing God’s guidance in answer to prayer he said, “Blessed be the LORD, the God of my master Abraham, who has not forsaken his steadfast love and his faithfulness toward my master. As for me, the LORD has led me in the way to the house of my master’s kinsmen” (Genesis 24:27).   Can you look back in your life and see how God has led you “in the way”?  You might want to list them out on a piece of paper or a journal. After making your list, praise and bless God for His guidance that Abraham’s servant attributed to God’s “steadfast love” and “faithfulness”!  God certainly leads us in His love and faithfulness for He is a good guide.

One situation that I would have to put on my list of times in which God led me in the way would be when we followed the Lord’s direction in joining a certain mission board to go to Brazil as missionaries. We had just finished their required seminar classes in Ohio and needed to travel back across the country to Washington to start deputation in the Western states. We only had $150.00. We prayed for God’s guidance and provision for the trip.  God led us to look up a friend in Minnesota, whose father offered me a temporary job on the spot.  He needed someone to be the hands for his plumber who had just broken three fingers. So, I learned how to clean drains and sewer pipes, a skill which God would use in Brazil as I maintained mission property.  God’s leading also opened up a door to witness to the plumber for three weeks. Having had opportunity to serve others, we were back on the road and heading west.  On a Sunday we came to a small town in eastern Montana that bears my family name—Worden.  God directed our timing to have arrived about the time that evening church services would be starting. We found a church with open doors and sensed God’s peace about attending.  We met and had great fellowship with the pastor and congregation.  Without any solicitation, the pastor took up a love offering after the service to help us on the way.  I give God thanks and praise for He provided for us and led us while we were in the way.

God’s guidance may not always be so obvious. However, He is always directing those who trust Him and look to Him even in the mundane routines of daily life. God leads us daily by giving us wisdom and truth. He even gives His Spirit to believers to guide them into all truth as Jesus told His disciples, saying, “When the Spirit of truth comes, he will guide you into all the truth, for he will not speak on his own authority, but whatever he hears he will speak, and he will declare to you the things that are to come(John 16:13).  We still have the truth that the Spirit of God revealed through the Prophets and Apostles in the Word of God which is a lamp to our feet and a light to our path (Psalm 119:105). God guides us through His Word.
Many of the Psalms contain examples of how to call upon God for guidance and praise Him for this gift:

Psalm 5:8, Lead me, O LORD, in your righteousness because of my enemies; make your way straight before me.

Psalm 25:5, Lead me in your truth and teach me, for you are the God of my salvation; for you I wait all the day long.

In a previous devotion—God is Eternal, I listed out God’s eternal gifts. Well, we need to add one more. Psalm 48:12-14 indicates that God’s guidance is eternal, “Walk about Zion, go around her, number her towers, consider well her ramparts, go through her citadels, that you may tell the next generation that this is God, our God forever and ever. He will guide us forever.”

Will you wait for God’s guidance as you are in the way?  He will surely guide you if you call upon Him and seek truth and wisdom from His Word—the Bible.

 With Prayer, Mark

© September, 2011  Scripture quoted: ESV – Emphasis added

Verses for our meditation:  God Is Guide

Exodus 13:21, And the LORD went before them by day in a pillar of cloud to lead them along the way, and by night in a pillar of fire to give them light, that they might travel by day and by night.

Psalm 5:8, Lead me, O LORD, in your righteousness because of my enemies; make your way straight before me.

Psalm 25:5, Lead me in your truth and teach me, for you are the God of my salvation; for you I wait all the day long.

Psalm 27:11-14, Teach me your way, O LORD, and lead me on a level path because of my enemies. Give me not up to the will of my adversaries; for false witnesses have risen against me, and they breathe out violence. I believe that I shall look upon the goodness of the LORD in the land of the living! Wait for the LORD; be strong, and let your heart take courage; wait for the LORD!

Psalm 31:3-4,  For you are my rock and my fortress; and for your name’s sake you lead me and guide me;  you take me out of the net they have hidden for me, for you are my refuge.

Psalm 37:23-24,  The steps of a good man are ordered by the LORD: and he delighteth in his way. Though he fall, he shall not be utterly cast down: for the LORD upholdeth him with his hand.  KJV

Psalm 43:3-5, Send out your light and your truth; let them lead me; let them bring me to your holy hill and to your dwelling! Then I will go to the altar of God, to God my exceeding joy, and I will praise you with the lyre, O God, my God. Why are you cast down, O my soul, and why are you in turmoil within me? Hope in God; for I shall again praise him, my salvation and my God.

Psalm 48:12-14, Walk about Zion, go around her, number her towers, consider well her ramparts, go through her citadels, that you may tell the next generation that this is God, our God forever and ever. He will guide us forever.

Psalm 73:24-25, You guide me with your counsel, and afterward you will receive me to glory. Whom have I in heaven but you? And there is nothing on earth that I desire besides you.

John 16:13,  When the Spirit of truth comes, he will guide you into all the truth, for he will not speak on his own authority, but whatever he hears he will speak, and he will declare to you the things that are to come.

James 1:2-8,  Count it all joy, my brothers, when you meet trials of various kinds, for you know that the testing of your faith produces steadfastness. And let steadfastness have its full effect, that you may be perfect and complete, lacking in nothing. If any of you lacks wisdom, let him ask God, who gives generously to all without reproach, and it will be given him. But let him ask in faith, with no doubting, for the one who doubts is like a wave of the sea that is driven and tossed by the wind. For that person must not suppose that he will receive anything from the Lord; he is a double-minded man, unstable in all his ways.