Tag: right path

Thankful for God’s Refreshing

On By vickleaIn Scripture3 Comments

Sometimes I just get tired, long before my normal bedtime and before I really want to retire. My brain gets kind of foggy and I stumble a little as I walk, so I know that it is time to rest. Every time this happens, God provides me with total rest, a night in which I sleep peacefully without constantly awakening. My mind has its own way of dealing with stress and at times it just won’t stop whirring. That is when I call on God to give me the rest and peace that I need.

It is in resting that my mind and body and most especially my soul are refreshed. I wake up ready to tackle the new day, with energy flowing from deep within me. That is no small feat for someone who is in their seventies, but it happens each time I honestly admit to God that I need Him to provide a restful night for me, one without insomnia and constant wakefulness. And each night, He gives me rest and I awaken refreshed, with a clear mind and thoughts that are organized and orderly. It is so much easier to walk on the right path when I am guided by the Lord!

I am so thankful for God’s refreshing me when I sleep. But He also refreshes my soul when I am fully alert. He gives me His Word to read that provides water to my thirsty soul, like a fountain in a desert place. God is always willing to refresh me, but most times I get too busy with life to take the time to sit quietly and wait for the refreshing. After all, one does not go to the soda fountain, order a nice big soda to quench one’s thirst and then walk away. I have been guilty of doing that in the past. I tell God that I need refreshing and then I get busy, my thoughts wander and I walk away before He has provided the refreshment. I am so thankful that He doesn’t give up on me and my pettiness but continues to provide for me when I come back to His fountain and tell Him that I am ready to sit, listen and receive.

May you have a wonderful day filled with God’s blessing and refreshing!

The Way to Life

On By vickleaIn Quotation and Citations, Scripture10 Comments

Have you ever been following directions from your GPS and realized that it was leading you incorrectly? That happened to me and my husband a few months ago when we were in NC for an author signing. The GPS had us turn right out of our motel and head about fifteen miles away, but when we got where the GPS said “You have arrived at your destination” there was nothing there except a lot of houses and a small convenience store. We stopped in the store to ask directions and were told that the GPS had been sending a lot of people to this small town instead of to the bookstore where we needed to go. We got directions back to the correct place. Guess what? It was a left out of the parking lot and less than a mile from our motel! We were definitely misdirected!

God gives us clear directions about the road to eternal life, but we can only follow those directions if we keep our focus on Him and His Word. That’s where the clear directions come from.

The problem with a lot of people today is that they don’t want to hear about God. Like the Israelites, they want to steer their own course and go their own way, never counting the cost of moving in the wrong direction. Their choices are skewed by the fact that they think that their internal GPS will take them on the right road and eventually, one day, whenever they are ready, they will go to Heaven and meet God. Unfortunately for them, God’s plan doesn’t work that way.

I like this quotation from my devotional. At first, I thought, “Well, I’m okay, because I hardly ever call a bunch of people to tell them my problems.” In today’s world, you don’t have to call people to be more reliant on your phone than on God. You “google” whatever your problem is and then follow the advice that you find online. Instead of going to the phone and all of its technological advances, it would be a lot simpler to go to God’s throne and just ask for His guidance and help in whatever you are going through. True, I don’t call, but I do “google” and I am reminded to stop and pray not scroll and read the phone. It has few if any answers to the way that I should follow to life.

The “HE” is God…He has put us on the exact road that we need to be on to go straight to eternity with Him. That is the good place where we will end up if we follow His directions, His plan. Instead, we (including me at times) have followed my own way, my own GPS or even the google master and ended up frustrated and lost. Thank the Lord that He does not leave us in that place where we insisted on going! He picks us up right where we are and tells us the right way to go, putting us once again on the pathway to life. We just have to stay focused and be willing to admit that we messed up and need His help.

God will show us the way of life if we just ask Him. We don’t need a GPS or Google or our own internal voice telling us which way to go. We need to just listen to God so that one day we will have the pleasure of being in His presence forever.

The Right Way

On By vickleaIn Scripture5 Comments

In today’s tech savvy world, just about everyone uses GPS to get to their destination, whether it be on the car satellite or on the phone. But most of us have learned from experience that even Google makes mistakes. I know, gasp! Right? In April, my husband and I went to meet an author in North Carolina. Leaving the motel, Harry turned on the phone GPS and followed its directions. It actually took us to the address we were looking for, but in a neighboring town, fifteen miles away from the actual location. We discovered that others at the meeting had been led astray by Google Maps, too. We were actually less than a mile from the bookstore destination when we were at the motel. But we drove over thirty miles out of our way because the GPS led us in the wrong direction. That’s why we have to be careful to check out our compasses!

When we are uncertain about which path to take, we have to take time to listen for God’s quiet voice, directing us in the right way. I have often gotten off the right path and not only does God lead me back to the right one, He does not chide me the whole way back or tell me, “I told you so. You just wouldn’t listen!” He just loves me into choosing the right path again. His voice may be behind me, speaking in my ear, but His Spirit goes before me, leading the way, if I will just open my eyes and follow.

I think that sometimes my straying from the right path is because I am following what I think will lead me to where I want to go, in pursuit of my own pleasures. But I have discovered that if I put God first, He leads me in the way that is right for me and that will also result in my receiving the true desires of my heart. These two Scriptures were together in my devotional this morning and I had to ponder how they merged together. I see it now and hope that you do, too.

Finally, there is this verse that admonishes me to guard my heart because in doing so the course of my life is determined. If my heart is set on following God, then my path is straight and my desires are fulfilled. Perhaps the biggest error I make is expecting that God’s desires are the same as mine. His desires are to carry out His purpose for my life and they are much loftier than anything I can imagine, so I need to get in step and follow His pathway in order to get to the correct destination.

May each of your steps today be ordered by the Lord and may your day be blessed with His desires for you.