August 20, 2013 … God’s Way – Our “GPS”

Daily Berry Patch Devotions in 2013 - Day 232

 Devotional Song: Go to this link  … Before you take in what I’ve written below, watch/listen to a poignant song sung by Alison Krauss, singing “Be Thou My Vision”, reminding us that God should be our direction-finder in this life, leading us to the next.

Highlight meditation passage – Philippians 3: 13-14 [NLT]: …  
13 No, dear brothers and sisters, I am still not all I should be, but I am focusing all my energies on this one thing: Forgetting the past and looking forward to what lies ahead, 14 I strain to reach the end of the race and receive the prize for which God, through Christ Jesus, is calling us up to heaven. 

Highlight reading study #1 of Philippians, Chapters 3: Go to this link … 
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Reference Passage #1: Proverbs 3: 5-6 [Trusting God’s way is our GPS in life.] … [NLT] …  
5 Trust in the LORD with all your heart; do not depend on your own understanding. 6 Seek His will in all you do, and He will direct your paths.

Reference Passage #2: Luke 9: 23 [Following Jesus and never looking back!.] … [NLT]  
... “If any of you wants to be My follower, you must put aside your selfish ambition, shoulder your cross daily, and follow Me.

My Journal for Today: These days when we’re going to take a trip in a car and we don’t exactly know where we’re going, we use maps to help us stay on course, don’t we? Or in these modern techno-times, many of us use a GPS device to help us get to our destination. And when we’re on the road, driving to our goal, we keep out eyes on the road ahead, occasionally using our rear or side view mirrors to see where we’re going in order to insure that, with the help of our GPS, we get to our destination.

Now, … I realize that maps and GPS devices are not perfect; and they may not be able to help us get through some road construction, detours, and the like. But they still are helpers to get us where we’re going. Well, this word picture helps us see what the Apostle Paul was trying to get Christians to understand in the highlight passage for my devotional entry today. He wanted his fellow believers in Philippi to understand that he, Paul, had not yet arrived at his destination of Christlikeness; and that he was going to be keeping his eyes on the road which Christ was leading him to follow, straining to do what Christ had commanded His disciples to do; (see Prov. 3: 5-6 and Luke 9: 23 above) and that is to follow our Lord’s perfect “GPS” and to strain forward, following God’s way, to follow Jesus to where Paul’s Lord was leading him.

My friend, when I come here to this place every morning, that’s exactly what I’m attempting to do in life, and that is to follow God’s inerrant “GPS,” which I have in His word, … striving to see all I can and to travel through the often unpredictable roads in life, straining, by looking ahead, to see through what I can see in my wind-shield of life and to stay on God’s way, doing all I can to get to the destination which Christ has pre-programmed into His “GPS” for my life.

There’s another passage in Philippians, i.e., Phil. 1: 6, which states, And I am sure that God, who began the good work within you, will continue his work until it is finally finished on that day when Christ Jesus comes back again. So, Christ has pre-programmed us in His Spirit to get to His destination of Christlikeness; and He has given us His perfectly-programmed “GPS,” i.e., His word, to help us stay on the road ahead as we drive toward THE GOAL to which Paul was writing about in today’s highlight passage.

But all too often we have a tendency to try to drive through life by using the rear-view mirrors more that keeping our eyes on the road ahead by using the front wind-shield. And you know I’m right, don’t you? We keep looking into our past; and by doing so, we blind ourselves to what’s ahead. And we also have a tendency to turn off God’s “GPS” and not use His perfect direction-finder from His word. And when we drive down the road through life in this way, we risk an almost certain crash.

So, I believe God is saying to me – LOUDLY – today, … “Bill, use My GPS; and keep your eyes on the road ahead; and I’ll get you where I want you to go!”    And that’s what I’m doing here today! And Allison Kraus sings these directions as well in the lilting old hymn to which I’ve linked you today.

Is God saying these same things to you about how we travel toward our common destination, that being heaven, today?

My Prayer for Today … Lord, I seek Your way. Shine Your light on my path as I keep my spiritual eyes on Your road ahead. … Amen