This week’s devotions are based on Week 1 of Rooted – Grounded in Grace (CLICK HERE)
Being lost is no fun.
I remember on a Pioneer campout in elementary school a couple friends and I wandered down to a creek. While we were allowed to do this, our intrigue as young boys took us along the creek figuring we could just retrace our steps back and find our way back to camp…until we couldn’t. What we thought was the right tree to turn at wasn’t. What we thought was a path, didn’t get where we wanted to go. What we thought was the right direction, wasn’t. We were lost.
As the sun began to set, we knew we were simply making things worse by wandering around. As a bit of fear began to creep in, we wish we had a map or guide to help us back to camp. Just as it was getting dark, we heard a couple of the camp counselors yelling our names. After a brief reprimand, they led us back to the safety of camp.
At times do you feel like this is your life? You think you are navigating it pretty well, until you aren’t. You think you have your next steps planned out, until you find yourself in a situation you never could have imagined. You think that you are headed in the right direction until you reach a dead end.
Life can be challenging. Life can make us feel lost.
While every answer to every situation and every decision is not recorded in the pages of Scripture, the good Lord gave us the Bible to guide us through life. He is the perfect camp counselor who comes after his children who are lost and invites us to follow his voice and direction.
Consider Psalm 1:1-3 Blessed is the man who does not walk in the counsel of the wicked or stand in the way of sinners or sit in the seat of mockers. 2 But his delight is in the law of the Lord, and on his law he meditates day and night. 3 He is like a tree planted by streams of water, which yields its fruit in season and whose leaf does not wither. Whatever he does prospers.
What the Lord through the writer of Psalm 1 wants us to realize is what happens when we have the wrong inputs in life. When we allow the “wicked,” “sinners” and mockers to be the main inputs in our life, of course the outcome is not going to be blessed or pleasant.
Perhaps it’s easy to say, “I don’t let those type of people speak into my heart and mind.” Or do we? How much of our advice comes from sources that do not honor the Lord or hold a Biblical worldview? How much of our direction comes from secular inputs that neither honor or follow the ways of the Lord?
Perhaps there is an opportunity to have more of God’s Word infiltrate and guide our thoughts, words and actions. The promise is that we will experience the blessing of the Lord, the life-giving nutrition from the Lord, and the prosperity the Lord determines is best for us.
So, if you are feeling lost or to prevent getting lost through life and reach safely the destination of heaven, remember this encouragement from Psalm 119:105: Your Word is a lamp to my feet and a light for my path.”
Apply: What aspect of life feels a bit lost? Search online for “scripture about ________” and see what truth from God’s Word speaks into your life.
Prayer: Lord, thank you for your work which guides my life to eternity with you. When I am lost, let me turn to you first. To prevent getting lost, let me listen to you always. AMEN.