The Journey
From: Charlie Dean –
There is a way which seemeth right unto a man, but the end thereof are the ways of death…Proverbs 14:12.
Some time ago, I heard a news report that after a journey of 285 million miles NASA’s Mars Spacecraft Odyssey arrived at the red planet and successfully fired its main engines to slow it into orbit.
After reading this, it was obvious to me that without this direction and guidance from mission control, the spaceship would have crashed into Mars and been destroyed. The spaceship would have been lost and all the knowledge and data it could have collected would have been lost. As a result, those that could have benefited from it having lived to complete its mission would suffer. No data would be collected, no useful information collected. All would have been lost if it had been on the wrong path.
Man too is on a journey set into motion by your birth. No one’s birth is an accident (Acts 17:25; Gen. 2:7) and God has a purpose or plan for each of us. If we follow the “divine plan” for our life, we will complete the tasks which God desires and fulfill our mission. As a result, others will benefit from our life and all we have encountered will be blessed by the things we do.
However, there are other outside, influences on our life. As gravity was pulling on the Mars Spacecraft Odyssey, so do other influences, evil influences, try to pull us away from the path God has designed.
Man used outside controls to direct the spacecraft onto the chosen path. As Christians, the Lord has given us His Spirit inside us to guide and direct us. Also, He has given us His Word to follow and opened up a line of communication between God and mankind through prayer.
He has made it possible that man could be redeemed from sin by the shed blood of his Son, Christ Jesus. For God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten son that whosoever believeth in him shall not perish but have everlasting life. (John 3:16)
The bible is full of examples of God’s directing our lives. The words in Psalm 73:23, 24 are an excellent example of the directing hand of God in our lives:
“…I am continually with thee: thou hast holden me by my right hand. Thou shalt guide me with thy counsel and afterward receive me to glory.”
The key is that we need to hold onto the hand of God. We need to seek his counsel, and we need to heed his advice and words. So, let’s acknowledge Jesus as Lord and seek his face for guidance that we may be on the path he wants us on not just some days, like on Sunday, but every day of our lives. Because every day you will encounter things, influences, temptations that will distract you and redirect you away from what God wants you to do that day.
“In all thy ways acknowledge him, and he shall direct thy paths…Proverbs 3:6.”