Show Me The Way 8/1/2015

Good Morning Friends,

This has been a long week. Just one of those weeks that things just piled on top of other things. I still say that the enemy is trying to discourage me just before I launch out on a short term mission trip. This is his usual tactic. So more time in prayer is needed. As I write, my faithful dog is at my feet, the wife is still snoring and the grandson just got up, looked at the clock, and went back to bed. So my cup of Door County Cinnamon Sugar Biscotti Coffee, the dog, and you are my company this morning.

Proverbs 3:5-6
⁵ Trust in the Lord with all your heart; and lean not unto your own understanding.
⁶ In all thy ways acknowledge him, and he shall direct thy paths.

As a very young kid who hunted in the forests of Wisconsin and Northern Michigan with much more experienced hunters, I often found myself lost or turned around in the woods. I was often given instructions to head out into the dark and to use my compass to find my way. Most of the time while returning to the "home base" I was the last one in or had to be found because I just couldn't find my return route. GPS units were not even thought of in those days.  I would pull out my compass and use it, but most of the time it just did not seem to make sense. In my mind I always trusted my gut feeling to go in another direction. I just couldn't trust that mechanical device. I would often end up walking extra miles, through the cold, in water that I should have avoided, and then get laughed at or scolded for being late and lost.

I decided to experiment one summer in the city with my compass. I had my friends drive me blindfolded to an area that I was not familiar with. I was not allowed to look at street signs. They would tell me where to meet. We agreed that the destination would not be more than a mile away. They would give me a general direction to head. For example North for 15 minutes then West for 5 minutes. We would do this in the evening just after sundown so I did not have the help of the sun. Cell phones were not invented yet and topographical computerized views were just a pipe dream at that time.  So I would head out with fifty cents for emergency phone calls just in case the city swallowed me up along with my compass. The more I used the compass, the more I learned to trust it. Whenever I decided that it could not trust it or would rely on my own pea brain, I would end up lost and out fifty cents. The more I used the compass the more I relied on it and getting lost just seemed to be a thing of the past.

God's Word the Bible is our daily compass for living. It has all the answers and advice for each day. The problem is, we don't use it enough to trust it. We rely on our own thoughts and gut reactions. We wander on the wrong path for too long sometimes. Not trusting God's Word is literally saying to God, "I don't trust You. I would rather trust in myself". You have just made yourself into your own little god. How foolish is that? Would you rely on yourself to provide your next breath? Would you be so kind as to make the sun rise tomorrow morning? I would, but I am a little busy tomorrow and don't have time. You see we rely on God every day and never acknowledge it. But we choose not to rely on Him or trust Him to direct our lives. We all put the M in the word morons.
I try very hard to rely on God, and trust His word, the Bible at all times. It's when I don't, and I take over that me and my family are usually headed to calamity that could be avoided. Or when the world throws a few punches our way, and we need guidance as to how to handle them, and I trust myself instead of God, and His word we tend to wander within the mess for too long.

Pull out your Spiritual compass the Bible. Trust in God to speak through it to you. Use it more and you will rely on it to steer your paths.

Have a great day! God bless.

Marty