Your word is a lamp to my feet
and a light to my path.
Psalm 119: 105
If you travel beyond your familiar run to the grocery store, church, and to see family and friends, you, I would guess, rely on the Global Positioning System (GPS). As a map reading challenged individual, I have welcomed the trigonometry-based technology and satellite imaging process of GPS. Except …
… Except attention to the instructions sent by the data is necessary if you want to get to your intended destination. Case in point: Earlier this week I drove to Ohio. I travelled the same route I had gone more than once before. When the GPS told me to exit the turnpike, I didn’t. As soon as I went past the interchange, I realized my error. Since I ignored my cue to exit, my error cost me an extra two dollars, not to mention time.
This might have been forgivable had I been deep in observation of cows in the pastureland or the greening of the countryside. It would have been forgivable had I been caught up in meditation on some music or a sermon on the radio. Distractions are not dishonorable, just foolish. No. I decided I knew more than the science of triangulation where, according to the FFA, [ii] GPS measures the time for a signal from three separate satellites to reach my cell phone and give me real-time navigation. I thought there would be a shorter way. Wrong.
I spent the next hour of my travel considering how I might also be tempted to ignore spiritual GPS: God’s Planning System. If the Word of God is a lamp for my feet to see each step to take and a light to illuminate the pathway ahead, then I need to follow His GPS. I do not need to question His ways and means to get me where He wants me to go and what He wants me to do.
There are two different aspects of God’s will: His will of decree and His will of command. The will of command is my responsibility: i.e., the Ten Commandments and the ways to follow them as outlined throughout the Scriptures. Jesus summarized them in Luke 10: 27:
“You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength and with all your mind, and your neighbor as yourself.”
If I love God, I will obey Him from the depths of my soul. I will stay on the path I see from the Bible as I read and obey it and pray for the Holy Spirit’s direction.
What about the decreed will of God—the Light He puts in my pathway? The “decreed” will of God is what He has planned from eternity, throughout time, and into infinity. His decreed will is what will happen. Oh yes, God’s will is accomplished even if my own purposes attempt to thwart His perfect will. My ways, if contrary to His, compromise my heart, soul, and strength. What God plans will happen. I cannot change His plans by my will to do otherwise. The Bible is filled with stories of men and women who attempted to go their own way, but God’s will prevailed. Moses explains:
The secret things belong to the Lord our God, but the things that are revealed belong to us and to our children forever, that we may do all the words of this law.
Deuteronomy 29: 29
I cannot change God’s decreed will by assuming my way, my idea, or my refusal to follow His plan. I say no; God will use someone else or get me there with my basket filled with unhappy consequences. I do my own thing; God will turn my disobedience into His glory, but at the expense of my loss of blessing or demise; I do my own thing; He will be glorified, but not because of me. I will miss this opportunity.
The best way to follow the His GPS is to obey His word—His commands. No, obeying the Ten Commandments will not save me. Ever. I obey them in response to His will, and by my love for and trust in the One who kept them without error, the Lord Jesus Christ.
If you have trusted the Lord Jesus Christ as your Savior, as a Christ follower you already receive the signals from His GPS. Walk with Him and follow the path of His light through the Word and through the Holy Spirit.
Challenge: Ask: “Am I following God’s ‘GPS?’” Seek God’s Word for directions. Find a good Bible reading program; study the Bible with a friend or join a Bible study group; Memorize verses and portions that tell how to live; fellowship with other Christ followers regularly; find a prayer partners.
Prayer: Lord, help me to stay in tune with your plans each day. Help me to understand Your word and follow the teaching You provide to show me how to glorify You. Help me to show others Your light as I follow your plans for my life. In Jesus Name. Amen.
“You are the light of the world. A city set on a hill cannot be hidden. Nor do people light a lamp and put it under a basket, but on a stand, and it gives light to all in the house. In the same way, let your light shine before others, so that they may see your good works and give glory to your Father who is in heaven.”
Matthew 5: 14-16
[i] This Photo by Unknown Author is licensed under CC BY-NC
[ii] Satellite Navigation – GPS – How It Works | Federal Aviation Administration
