So...Now What?

Good Tuesday morning! What if you heard a few words from a minister that led to a thought settling on your heart? That thought said that you had spent the past several years confidently following the wrong path in life. The next morning you wake up to a new song in your heart. "I am bound for the promised land..."

Sometimes God sends a voice into our hearts to make a course correction. That voice may come from a friend, a pastor, a stranger, or even as a whisper in the mind during the still, small hours of the night. We don't know how we realize that it is a message from God, but somehow this message speaks to the heart like no other sequence of words. How long have I been fighting God's will in my life? What caused me to go astray like this? Questions bounce around in the mind with no answer.

God does not seem to go in for post-mortem answers that much. As the ship begins to answer the helm and come about on a new course, God gives direction. He may not answer with a particular point in the past where the error occurred. God may not tell us how long we have been in the wrong. The length of time spent on the wrong course may be decades. The Israelites spent 40 years wandering the wilderness from one unfaithful decision, but that was the correction, not the start of the going off course. We know from the Bible story of the Exodus that the people were off course in faith before they left Egypt.

We often think we know what we want. God knows what we really want deep down in the heart where He planted a tiny seed called Faith. Confidently, we take off down a path that leads only to the prison of despair. Christian took a path like that in Bunyan's story. My journey was not exactly the same, which is why it was so hard to recognize. Our adversary is quite skilled at hiding the road signs. Before we give too much credit in that direction though, we also like to wander off the path thinking that our freedom means we know where to go.

God didn't provide a Counselor to guide those who only keep their own counsel. The devotional continues. God has said this is the closest I have come to the correct course. It is what comes after each day that is the problem. That is all I know this morning. My ship has not yet completed the turn. The direction is in faith, not knowledge. I feel a lightening of the burden that I hardly deserve. I am bound for the promised land.

God bless you in your journey with Jesus,
Bucky