G.P.S.

Blessed is the one who perseveres under trial because, having stood the test, that person will receive the crown of life that the Lord has promised to those who love him.  James 1:12

I was on the freeway yesterday evening, headed to the mall to meet my mom and brother.  I was going a different way than normal so I put the mall address into my GPS on my phone and updated directions from my present location.  I tend to get nervous when I’m driving, especially when it’s late, so I kept updating the directions from my current location.  At some point I was sure I had missed my turn so at the next light, I made a U-turn and was in the process of updating the directions again.  When they finally updated, it told me to make a U-turn (again) and head back north to get to the freeway I was looking for.  After I passed the light where I’d originally turned around, the very next block was the entry to the freeway…I was SOOOO close and turned around and delayed myself by 10 minutes.  Had I trusted my GPS the first time I would’ve been okay!  
So often, we do that with God’s plans for us.  We’ll say lead me Lord and we’ll go and things get a little rough, but we trust the Lord through it.  They get a little rougher, and we still trust and thank God but we start to develop a back up plan in the back of our minds.  Then when it gets shaky and we’re all sorts of uncomfortable, we turn the other way and go to whatever back-up plan we had.  What I’ve found, personally, is that I was so close to a breakthrough but I gave in to fear and missed out on my blessing!

You see satan tries to turn us around and make us lose our ground, he wants us to give up and lose faith and miss out every time. he (yes I did not capitalize on purpose because I feel satan deserves no respect!) is always ready to tempt us with an easy way out a “solution” to what we are going through.  Sure it may have shiny bells and whistles and seemingly look like a blessing, but there’s always something not quite right about the solution and you become torn or confused about which way to go.  My God is not a God of confusion (1Cor. 4:13)!  He said that he will be a light unto our feet and a lamp unto our paths (Ps. 119:105)!  That means he will make things CLEAR for us.  There is no confusion in God’s works…there is clarity, peace, joy and a presence of assurance!  
So next time you’re ready to turn around, and there’s a voice telling you just go a little further, don’t bicker with God, trust and see what just ahead at the next block.