A Guide for the Journey

Show me your ways, Lord, teach me your paths. Guide me in your truth and teach me for you are God my Savior and my hope is in you all day long. (Psalm 25:4-5)

Have you ever taken a tour of a museum or hiked on a trail with a guide? Maybe you were on a camp-out and had a leader who led you through a series of activities; Or maybe you had a coach who taught you an entirely new way to play a sport?


All throughout our lives we have mentors, teachers and guides who help us along life’s journey. We learn new things, skills or tasks, which we build upon in each successive phase of our journeys. Our guides are often wise men and women who have already traveled the path we are taking or have mastered a piece of the trail we need to move forward. We admire these leaders in our lives and trust their advice – we, in fact, put our very lives in their capable hands.


Ultimately, a guide or a teacher can only take us so far on the journey. They only know a portion of our trip, but God knows the entire journey; every curve, corner, nook and cranny. He places the other guides in our paths to help us along, but He is our true guide on this journey.

 

We follow Him by allowing God to teach us how He wants us to live. His lead begins with our understanding the truth of His love. God is truth – everything about Him is reality – and trusting in Him we will find a clear path in life.

 

He will not take us faster than we can go – even when we press Him for the next step – nor will He allow us to go too slow. By allowing Him to guide us, to show us His ways, to live the life He desires for us, we will be living a life like Goldie Locks when she ate the last bowl of porridge…“just right”.


But the journey cannot begin until you are ready to listen to your Guide and trust in His leadership.


Are you ready for the journey?

 Scripture Reference (click below)

Psalm 25

Quote of the Day…

Only those who will risk going too far can possibly find out how far they can go."
-- T.S. Eliot

Question of the Day

What is the best place you have ever hiked, gone for a walk, a bike ride or some other place where you were on a journey and why?

Don't forget...GUMY TONIGHT!!!!

Where are you living?

Life is a journey.


Sounds like something you would find on a plaque in a dentists office or shared during a self-help group seminar. Although it may be cliche, it is true.

The journey will take you one of four places: the mountaintop, the valley, the road up the mountain or the road back down. You are somewhere on that path - and likely you have already been in all four spots more than once.

The mountain top... "Send me your light and your faithful care, let them lead me; let them bring me to your holy mountain, to the place where you dwell." (Psalm 43:2-4) Let me be in the place where you are...as people of faith our greatest desire is to reside with the Lord. When we are living on the mountaintop we experience the highest points of our faith experience - of our journey in life. Mountaintop living is not intended for an extended period of time, but rather to rejuvinate you and give you the motivation to go forward on your journey. Montaintop living is like a firework - it is beautiful, powerful, and bright but brief. You cannot stay on the mountain, because there is much work to be done. The mountaintop experiences in your life motivate you to head down the mountain to try and share your love of Jesus with others.

The road down the mountain... Over a third of your life will be spent coming down the mountain and it is on this journey down the path that you will encounter those for whom God intends you to be His hands and feet. On this path you will have the opportunity to share God's love and His peace. It would have been easy to stay on the mountain top - to rest in God's grace and His embrace - but then you wouldn't be able to live out God's call on your life "go and make disciples of all nations" (Matthew 28:19). A big reason for coming down the mountain is to influence those around us on behalf of God.

The valley... The valleys we have to walk through are sometimes quite deep. In the valleys of life we face trials that range from failing a test to losing a loved one. The valleys of life have a way of making us long for peace; long to be released from the pain which we are suffering, but the valleys are a way to draw us nearer to the heart of God. (Hebrews 10:22) When we face trials, when we walk through the valleys, we must rely on God to pull us through. We can't "skip" over the valleys - the experiences we have there shape us as fundamentally as those we have on the mountain top. In the valleys we press on, holding tightly to Jesus as He carries us through.

The road up the mountain... Just as coming down the mountain will be where a large portion of your life will be spent, so going up the mountain will also be a significant part of your life. On this journey out of your valleys, you will have the great opportunity to allow others to minister to you - those coming down the mountain and even those on their way up. Your heart will be tender after living in the valley and thus more open to what God has to say to you and likely through you to others on the journey.

Life is about the journey. Understanding where you are on that journey is important so that you understand what God's purpose is for you in your life.

Don't fear the journey or where you are - embrace each step and know that you are exactly where God intends you to be.

Scripture
There are a couple today...
Psalm 23; Psalm 43: 2-4; Luke 9: 28-36 (The Transfiguration...we might see this again soon...)

Quote of the Day
(just to change it up)

There never was a great soul that did not have some divine inspiration

Marcus Tulluis Cicero

Here's hoping that you are divinely inspired today!

Question of the Day

What was your greatest montaintop experience?