The Way Of The Lord

I came to my quiet time with the Lord today in anticipation that He was going to speak to my heart. I’ve been thinking through some things that have weighed upon my heart for some time now. The Lord has been faithful over the years to show me in His time what He is teaching me. And today He spoke in some key verses in The Daily Light, a devotional I love to live in day by day. The Daily Light is all scripture, organized according to various themes. As an aside, Lilias Trotter used The Daily Light every day in her quiet time. Amy Carmichael, Gladys Alyward, and Hudson Taylor also meditated daily in The Daily Light. Good company for us! Anyhow, today the scripture focused on the Lord’s presence, His leading, and the ways of the Lord. Lots of good verses from everywhere in the Bible. But Jeremiah 10:23 stood out to me: “I know, O LORD, that the way of man is not in himself, that it is not in man who walks to direct his steps” (English Standard Version). I got to thinking about this verse and read it in a couple of other translations. The NLT says it this way: “I know, LORD, that our lives are not our own. We are not able to plan our own course.” The MSG reads this way: “I know, GOD, that mere mortals can’t run their own lives, that men and women don’t have what it takes to take charge of life.” Then, I cross-referenced Jeremiah 10:23 and found Proverbs 20:24, a VERY GOOD verse to remember: “Man’s steps are ordained by the LORD, how then can man understand his way?” (NASB). The NLT, “The LORD directs our steps, so why try to understand everything along the way?” Okay, so now I was GETTING what God was saying to me. He was putting His finger on my struggle. Proverbs 16:9 says, “We can make our plans, but the LORD determines our steps.”

What the Lord brought home in my heart today is that I fall into the habit of trying to understand what He is doing. I found myself looking at things and saying “God must be doing this…God must be doing that…oh, this must be what God is going to do.” Have you ever fallen into that habit? When we do that, we are, in a sense, thinking we can manage or direct our steps, and figure everything out about life. But clearly, from the verses above, the Lord directs our steps and He is the only One who knows the way He is taking us. And what He was saying to me today is that He wants me to stop trying to understand and instead, trust Him. Leave the results to Him. I won’t understand what He is doing most of the time because His ways are higher than my ways (Isaiah 55:9). He says, “…my ways are far beyond anything you could imagine” (Isaiah 55:8 NLT). And of course, I have known these things, but today I KNOW them more. God brought these truths home to my heart in a new and deeper way.

And then, He brought Proverbs 3:5-6 to my mind - I turned to it: “Trust in the LORD with all your heart; do not depend on your own understanding. Seek his will in all you do, and he will show you which path to take.” How good is that! I need to just stop trying to “understand everything along the way” and, instead, TRUST - total reliance under stress and trial. Just trust and leave it all with God. Seek Him and do what He’s called me to do. So, what God is doing is refining my own priorities and affections and building in me a deeper trust in Him. So today, as I launch into the day, my focus is GOD and trusting in Him every step of the way. I may not know what the future holds, but I do, indeed, know WHO holds my future. And He is the One I can trust with my life and the lives of my loved ones. He is ENOUGH for whatever comes my way.
Lord, thank You today for showing me that I don’t need to understand everything along the way and instead, just need to trust You. Help me to fix my eyes on You today, seek Your will in all I do, and trust You to show me what path to take. In Jesus’ name, Amen.