“He maketh me to lie down in green pastures: He leadeth me beside the still waters. He restoreth my soul: He leadeth me in the paths of righteousness for his name’s sake.” (Psalm 23:2-3)
I have often heard the question put forth as to the mechanism of God’s guiding our lives. If He plans our lives, as the Bible says, how do you explain our ability to choose our own actions? Our life is a journey, beginning at our birth and ending with our arrival at eternal life (because all are going into eternity, be it Heaven or Hell) and God is our Heavenly GPS. He has mapped out our route from beginning to end. However, as when we are driving, we have the freedom to ignore a turn or choose another not on our planned route. Sometimes we are simply not looking at or listening to our vehicle’s GPS and we miss a turn. Because God is also the satellite for our Heavenly GPS, that sees all the possible ways to get where we are going, He replans our route, adding a new turn or, sometimes, a U-turn!
Sometimes we miss things along the way, some good, some bad, and experience others instead. Just like with our vehicle’s GPS, our new route will still get us to our destination. Some things are essential to our journey in equipping us for our destination so, perhaps, some turns bring us to dead ends, forcing us to turn around.
We have, for the most part, confidence in our vehicle’s GPS and trust its ability to get us to our destination and to re-route us as needed. Anyone who has used a GPS for any length of time probably knows the frustration of being told you have “reached your destination” while in the middle of an intersection or, perhaps, the middle of nowhere. God, on the other hand, will never fail us. If we will listen to our Heavenly GPS and follow where it leads, we will not only come to our destination, we will be enriched and blessed along the way.
Yours in Christ,
Sonya Richards