Straight paths

Yesterday I overslept because, while experimenting with different alarm settings on my phone the night before, I forgot to reset the time. But that was okay. I still got up in time to get everything going around here. It was a pretty smooth morning. I got Olivia to school on time and was on my way to work when I realized I  didn't have any drinking water to take with me to work. As I exited the interstate, one of my favorite radio preachers came on, and I thought, 'Oh, I wish I could hear that whole message.' But I was close to my first house, and I needed to stop at a store. I decided to pass the first store and go to one closer to the job; maybe I'd get stopped by a few red lights and get to listen longer. Then Chris called and sheepishly informed me that he'd locked himself out of the house while taking out the trash. Gratefully, I turned the car around, turned up the radio, and headed for home.

I so needed to hear that sermon. He was talking about trusting God. Teaching from Proverbs 3, he quoted verses 5 and 6. "Trust in the LORD with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding;  in all your ways acknowledge him, and he will make your paths straight." The version he read from said "he will direct your paths." For some reason, I was pleasantly and delightfully shocked when he revealed to me that the same Greek word in Proverbs 3 used for "direct" or "make straight" was the same word used in Isaiah 40:3, which reads "In the desert prepare the way for the LORD; make straight in the wilderness a highway for our God." Verse 5 elaborates on making straight paths and what that means. I've read it before. Most of us have. But applying this new knowledge to Proverbs 3:6 opened up the world to me yesterday. "Every valley shall be raised up, every mountain and hill made low; the rough ground shall become level, the rugged places a plain." (Isaiah 40:4)

Wow. For some reason, I had been imagining my path more like a dense forest, thick with overgrowth, dark and obscure. But this message on the radio yesterday gave me a new mental image of the life vision God has given me. This radio preacher, God bless him, showed me that I do not have to clear my own path. God will bulldoze it for me! He will open the doors. He will smooth out the ground for me as I walk. He will not call me into a purpose and leave me to fend for myself. I knew all this in my mind, but that troublemaking mind of mine was standing in the way of my heart's peace, as usual.

What sweet relief! What a weight lifted off of me!! I hadn't realized how heavy I had been with all the questions. But now they are lifted, Hallelujah!! The only path I need to make straight is God's path to my doubting and unsure heart. Only then will He be free to make the path to my purpose straight for me.

Father, thank You for Your faithfulness. Thank You for raising up my valleys and making low my mountains and hills. Thank You for leveling the rough ground that stands in my way and making all my obstacles like an open plain. I've been asking all the wrong questions. I don't need to know where You're taking me and I don't need to know how I'll get there. I only need to know that my heart is completely surrendered to You. Even more today than yesterday, I desire to know what that means.

In His sovereign love,

Amy

copyright 2010, Amy Wallace