Last week, I shared with you two verses from Psalms that have meant so much to me this year. They are Psalm 25:4-5 which say:
“Show me the right path, O Lord;
point out the road for me to follow.
Lead me by your truth and teach me,
for you are the God who saves me.
All day long I put my hope in you.”
This past weekend, I was asked to share a devotional at a workshop for Operation Christmas Child and as I began to prepare…these verses kept coming to my mind. I ended up speaking on them and I thought I would share with you today and next week what the Lord impressed on me.
What I love about these verses is the fact that the words are so practical. Show me, point out the road, lead me, teach me. It’s not complicated to ask the Lord to help us know what to do and where to go. But so often we make it complicated and then we become discouraged and frustrated.
I read recently about a man by the name of Tim Quinn. He said that he was stumped. His old Macintosh laptop simply would not run the Mac Bible software anymore. Though he had worked with it for hours, nothing he did would help. His wife suggested that he call the owners of the software for help, but no, he knew what he was doing.
Finally, after having exhausted every last idea, he gave in and called the Mac Bible corporation. After speaking to a friendly voice, he was assured that the person to whom he was being referred would know exactly what to do. Tim wasn’t convinced, but he called him anyway.
The name he had been given sounded familiar, and he soon learned why. The person on the other end of the line was none other than the man who wrote the Mac Bible software. He gave Tim a brief set of instructions, which he wrote down and hung up the phone. In minutes, Tim’s computer software program was up and running. He just had to go to the man who wrote the program.
Tim writes, “How many times in life do we try to work out our problems our own way? Finally, when all else has failed, we go to the one who designed us. Soon, if we obey, we find ourselves once again at peace with God and functioning as he planned.”
That is so true. Many times, we use going to the Lord in prayer as our last resort. After we have stewed and fretted and wrung our hands and studied everything we can get our hands on and asked every person we’ve encountered what we should do…we finally throw up our hands and say, “Well, I guess all we can do is pray!”
Show me, teach me, guide me. These are the places we need to start when we need direction in our lives. As willing followers, we need and want God to show us what to do. We want God to teach us what is the best way to go. And we want God to guide us to where He wants us.
But then the question that usually arises is, “How do we hear from the Lord?” Well, if we look back in the Old Testament, God spoke to Adam and Eve face to face. He spoke to Moses through a burning bush. He spoke to Balaam through his donkey. He spoke to Elijah through a still small voice. He spoke to the people of Israel through a pillar of cloud and a pillar of fire. He spoke to Isaiah through a vision. He spoke to Gideon through a sign, 2 days in a row. He spoke to Belshazzar through handwriting on the wall. He spoke to Daniel through dreams. He spoke to Jacob through an angel. He spoke to David through the prophet Nathan.
Unfortunately, we usually don’t
see any of those things today.
But many times, the Bible simply says, “The Lord spoke to…” I’m not sure what that exactly means, but I picture a booming voice from heaven.
Well, clearly, God doesn’t really do
that so much now either, if at all.
We want the big, clear, unmistakable signs that God is speaking to us. We want the bush, the writing, the donkey, the fleece. But they were pretty much one-time things. The New Testament changed so much, including how God speaks.
Are you currently looking for direction and leading from the Lord concerning a certain area of your life? If so, I want to encourage you to spend the next week praying fervently for Him to show you, teach you and guide you. As you pray, write down any feelings that come to your mind. If you feel Him leading you to do something in particular…write it down. If your heart seems to dwell on a certain phrase or inspiration…write it down.
Then next Monday, we will look at what our next steps should be after we’ve prayed…to obey Him as He’s taught us, showed us and guided us. Trust me…it really isn’t as difficult as we often make it out to be!
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