God Guides Our Steps on the Journey
Today's Scripture: Psalm 18:30-36
Family upheavals, job loss, retirement, career changes, illness, unexpected babies. Doesn’t being a Christian mean having life easy? How do I integrate all these challenges into my faith in God?
MaryBeth Robertson is director of Moses Merrill Camp and Conference Center, an American Baptist Churches of Nebraska ministry.
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As Christians, we know our journey’s destination, but as the road twists and turns, our sight is limited. We encounter unfamiliar rocky pathways, and at times, we must choose between two difficult routes.
In everything, Psalm 18 reassures us, God equips us for the journey, giving us strength such that we can bend even a bronze bow. We are strengthened to take on even the most daunting tasks — encouraging an unwed pregnant daughter, reassuring a 15-year old son that getting kicked in the face did not make him ugly, sustaining another son and his sons, following his difficult divorce.
God gives us the feet of a deer, sure-footed as we move quickly even when the way is uncertain or rocky. Friends didn’t include divorce in their five-year plan. What comes next when we retire?
God guides our steps and sets us securely on a high place. How could the new job following my divorce be anything but God’s guidance?! Perhaps God works through our friends who surround us with care, prayer, assistance and love — unaware of the turmoil we are experiencing.
We journey by faith, faith that God will guide us, will equip us and will always be with us. We can journey with surefootedness, even without knowing what comes next, what new ministry awaits.
I wonder: Do deer consciously choose each step or do they run instinctively? We don’t need to know details of each leg of the journey, only that we journey with God.
