SPIRITUAL GPS

...My father, thou art the guide of my youth.
Jeremiah 3:4b

It's never been our fortune or misfortune to have a car with a GPS system. It isn't that I don't know much about one because I've been in the car with friends or family who do have one. I guess they serve their purpose, but have learned that GPS's could use a little more refining. I had one friend who got a new car and had trouble with the voice in her system...she couldn't get it to shut up. I was with another friend when she was told to make a left hand turn onto a one-way street...going the wrong way. We laughed at the time, but it could have really been a problem. For me, despite computer read outs and guidance systems in a car, just give me a good old road map or atlas containing route information in every state. I can remember the day when I could walk into any gas station and pick up a free road map. Those days are definitely a thing of the past.

However, we choose to get from one place to a distant place, we often need help unless we've made the same trip many times. My first trip alone to our Smoky Mountains was almost a nightmare. I was around 23 at the time and was pretty sure of where I was going. When in Tennessee, I decided to take some back roads to the mountains. I thought if I pointed my car east on a two-lane road that seemed to be going straight, that I'd get there. After all, my dad had often told me what a great sense of direction I had. After an hour of wandering, I pulled up to an old beat up gas station that had one pump. The pump looked age-wise like it could have been new in the 1940's, A middle-aged man was in a chair leaning against the front wall. He had his faded overalls on with a beat up straw hat on his head. As he approached my car (that was about out of gas at that point), I noticed he didn't have many teeth. I went through my “lostness” with him and he took pity. I didn't have an abundance of money and told him that. He let me pay half on the gas and let me know that I was a mighty long way from my destination. He got me going the right way.

Whether on a vacation or finding our way through a city to a new job, we need to arrive at our destination with some success. The same is even truer with the spiritual road we are traveling. We need God's guidance more than I think we realize. I like to think of this process as God's Pathway System. Where our car systems are handy and efficient most of the time, God's guidance will never fail. He knows every curve in the road, rural lane, expressway ramp, residential streets of our lives. There are no wrong turns with God. Our problem often is that with our turns and curves in life, we choose to go our own way and then wonder what happened. Jesus made a wonderful promise to His disciples in John 16:13a that is still in effect today. He said;

Howbeit when he, the Spirit of truth, is come,
he will guide you into all truth...

We have no excuse if we find ourselves driving into the ditches of life, spiritually speaking. We have truth, straight from God's Word that will guide us into right living, right spiritual direction. When we find ourselves having gone off the road of truth, the blame cannot be put at the feet of Jesus. He's given us all we need from His world.

Not only do we have the assurance of God's guidance in our lives, but this guidance isn't intermittent...come and go. He promises us His guidance on a continual basis. One place this is found in Scripture is in 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.

When Scripture tells us something God WILL do, we can believe it and stake our lives on it. people pay high prices for special doctors and counselors to give them advice and guidance. Depending on the expert, they may or may not be available for appointments when someone needs their help. God doesn't keep office hours. He is available to us every moment of every day.

One of best of all assurances in this special GPS is found in Psalm 48:14

For this God is our God forever and ever:
He will be our guide even unto death.

In that verse, we have a life-time guarantee of God's guidance. There isn't an automobile manufacturing company in the world that can give us that kind of guarantee on their GPS systems. God, however, is in a position to be with us anytime, anywhere with His guidance available through the Holy Spirit directing us through our Owner's Manual, His Holy Word.

Remember though, when He gives us the way to go and we decide otherwise, we will find ourselves in more ditches of life than can be imagined. “He leadeth me, o blessed thought...by His own hand, He leadeth me.”

Dear Father, help me to be teachable and responsive to every step You want me to take. Thank You for loving me even when I choose to go my own way. I'm so grateful for the direction of Your sweet Holy Spirit. I love You and thank You for loving me....Amen