The Right “GPS” for the Journey
Posted on June 6th, 2009
Pastor’s Column published in The Informer (FBC’s Newsletter for June 2009)
As we prepare to take family trips to St. Louis and Houston this summer, one thing that we are glad to have in our car is a “GPS,” or a “Global Positioning System.” A GPS is a very handy device. We program into the little box our final destination, and then a voice calls out directions, turn by turn, through every intersection along the route. If I fail to follow the instructions, the GPS pauses and then announces “recalculating,” and then it guides you along an alternate route or suggests that I make the nearest U-turn. While our GPS is not perfect, it certainly has been very useful in guiding us in our travels, especially while driving through strange and unfamiliar parts of the country.
As we launched our ten Prayer Triplets the last two Sundays, I have often wondered where our church’s Spiritual Transformation Journey will take us. But then I’m reminded that we have the right “GPS” for the journey – we have “God’s Positioning System!” God knows our destination even though we do not. God also promises that His Spirit will come to guide us into all truth (John 16:13). We just need to be still and know that God is God (Psalm 46:10) and trust that God will show us the way that we should go (Psalm 143:8). The formation of Prayer Triplets is just one way that we can intentionally set aside time to be still and listen to God’s voice as He guides us every step of the way as individuals and as a church in our faith journey.
And our destination? I am reminded of the words of Gary Shockley in his book Following the Spirit’s Leading: “I am trying to learn something at once both simple and incredibly difficult: the destination is not a place but a person-a person who loves me very much and more than anything wants to be with me along the journey of life. I am much more open these days to the idea that God isn’t all that interested in getting me somewhere. God is just interested in getting me!”
May God “get us” in the coming months, so that wherever He leads, we’ll go.
Journeying on, Michael
Filed under News Column, Spiritual Transformation Journey |