GPS's and maps

Are you a modern GPS person, or do you tend to lean more toward old-fashioned maps?  I’m not saying maps are old-fashioned though, in my opinion a map is still the quickest way to find the place you are going.  Just flip to the right page, follow the streets to where you want to be, and ta-da!  Maps make travelling a lot easier, since you can plan your entire trip ahead of time, and in my case, memorise all the turns and traffic lights.  In the end when I get into my car, it’s like I’ve already been there.  The only problem with maps is that they are quickly out-dated.  These days new roads are constantly being built, new extensions to suburbs are erected, and I don’t buy a new map book every year.  In fact, mine is probably over 10 years old.  You can imagine the sticky situations this can create.

GPS’s on the other hand are easily updated.  You never need to plan your journey before you leave home, just enter the address and off you go.  Carefully obey the instructions of the GPS and you should have no problem in reaching your destination, even though you’ve never been there before and don’t know any of the roads.

Now spiritually speaking, are you a map person or a GPS person?  Funny how most of us are GPS people when it comes to our driving, but map people when it comes to the spiritual.  Let me explain.  We are quite happy and trusting in following the instructions of an electronic voice while driving, which doesn’t tell us at the beginning of the journey exactly where we will be driving.  When it comes to our lives and hearing from God, we insist that He maps it all out for us the “old-fashioned” way, so we can know exactly what will happen and when.  We trust technology to tell us where we should go, more than we trust our Father!  A GPS warns you well in advance of an upcoming turn and the direction you should take, don’t we trust our Father to do the same?

I’ve been thinking about Abraham a lot lately, and how God told him to pack up his family and leave the land he was living in.  Abraham didn’t argue with God, or sit over maps and plans for his journey, wondering and complaining about where he would go.  The Word says “and he went out, not knowing where he was going.” (Heb 11:8)  In fact, the whole of Hebrews chapter 11 speaks of people who trusted God to keep His word, without knowing how He will do it.  Think about Sarah to whom God promised a child, but who was past the age of child baring.  She “judged Him faithful who had promised.” Then there was Noah.  Can you imagine the ridicule he must’ve endured while building the ark?  Yet he was obedient and faithful, knowing God would do what He had promised.

What has God promised you?  Or what has He told you to do when you asked Him for an answer?  Did He tell you the whole story from beginning to end?  Or is it just one step on your journey to the “land He will show you”?  And are you groaning and wondering and afraid about how it will all work out?  Don’t be afraid.  If your ears are open to hear when He speaks, you will hear when He tells you what the next turn is before you need to take it. 

Don’t get me wrong, He is able to tell us everything in advance if He chooses to.  But what role will faith play in your journey then?  Why would you need your Father’s guidance if you already know every bump and turn and pothole?  Guidance, and therefore faith, is a step-by-step thing.  A constant dependence on Him, just like you’d carefully obey the instructions of that little piece of technology stuck to your car’s windscreen.

Will you, like Abraham, go without knowing where you are going?  Trust, without knowing how it can possibly work out?  Your Father knows the routes of your life better than any GPS could ever know the roads of this country.  Trust Him to get you where you need to be, listen to His voice and obey His commands, and you will soon hear that familiar voice saying “you have reached your destination.”

“In all your ways acknowledge Him, and He shall direct your paths.” Proverbs 3:6