"You enlarge my path under me, so my feet did not slip" Psalm 18:36
Tourist or Pilgrim? The road named Obedience is the path that goes in the same direction with God, to a place that God is taking us one step at a time...and we are promised that on this road there are no missed steps nor will our feet slip...the path is secure if we belong to Him and we shall conquer through Christ
Along this path there are twists and turns and it is God who leads us along the way. We live in a world that sends messages that our goal in life is to feel good , be entertained, not to mention that our attention spans handle only about 30 second commercials and our computers give us information and answers to much of what we want in mere seconds at the touch of a fingertip. We want things fast and we want them now and we want them our way.
Religion and mans ways...markets our feelings to make us feel good, like a tourist on a vacation destination using the methods of man and dangling trinkets before our eyes in the form of a feel good experience and deceiving us into thinking that there is always something more we need...a new experience...a new path..as was the case with Eve many years ago. We live in a world that seeks after the next newest and biggest thing....telling us immediate answers it has to comfort our craving hearts...remedies needed to appease our hurting hearts....as we do not like to be patient and watch and pray and wait on God on 'His highway to holiness".
As believers God is our tour guide in this world and we travel not with the mindset of a tourist taking in all that this world has to offer but as we travel as Pilgrims whose destination is Heaven and trusting that the path we travel God has planned. As we travel on the path set before us as His disciples, we always grow and learn from our Teacher Jesus Christ and we apply what He is teaching us. We walk with purpose and intention as He shows us our next steps...we walk with patience as we wait on Him...following Him closely.
In pain and exhaustion God's Word was my guide and comfort (and still is) as in my distress like David I called upon the LORD with confidence believing He heard my prayers from His temple as David penned in the Psalms. I knew that God 'knew this day and fashioned it for us even before the world began'. This week a year ago we received the diagnosis of a malignant tumor, surgery was done, and the world was spinning around me. Randy was confident once again that God was in control and that it was God who was asking him now to walk through this fire to bring God glory. He knew God has always been faithful, delivering from every test and trial, and he would do it again and again until his ministry here on earth was complete. I prayed for the LORD to 'increase my faith' as he was a rock and as I have been called to follow him in all things as his wife...my faith always increasing watching his faith lived out. God then led me to Psalm 18, as David wrote of his despair with feelings of no way of escape gripping deep within his heart.
David knew his answer was in God...he knew the scriptures...he knew of the stories of Abraham 'the father of faith' who was called by God...who 'went out' knowing this world was not his home. God had brought David out of difficulties continually as God's plan for him was unfolding although opposition and adversity was often met along this path. His heart and spirit is such an example to us all as distrust and unbelief wants to come from within our hearts and weaken our faith. It is so true of our flesh, unless we see a beautiful and pleasant path before us, like the tourist working hard to plan that perfect trip, we tremble as if the earth is shaking beneath our feet when our life is met with affliction.
How I must continue to remember in times of great trial that the authority of the One who enlarges our ways and makes the crooked paths level belongs to a Sovereign God. It is the grace of God upon our life that makes 'our feet not to stagger or slip' , for no adversity that comes our way will take away our courage or bring defeat or despair if we trust that God will make our way perfect...because...He cannot fail....because 'it is God who arms us with strength".
Randy reminded me that 'we are a people of faith' and I was reminded then of Abraham, of David, of the people of faith who have gone before us...all who endured what came into their lives...until the end....all trusting in God and depending on His bare Word...all for the redemption of the world. I thought of James 2:18 and I read this commentary, "Faith is the root, good works are the fruits; and we must see to it that we have both. This is the grace wherein we stand, and we should stand to it". This was Randy's heart always.
His Word is my guide, my feet must be established on the Rock of Ages, the sure and large foundation Jesus Christ in whom there is no danger of slipping and falling as I walk with Him despite what my eyes see and what my heart feels. My steps are secure as the Lord leads me, with the assurance that there are NO missteps with the Lord.
"As for God, His way is perfect" Psalm 18:30
Although the world's ways will always tell us the everything changes...God still speaks His never changing Word.
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