Unshackled Moments ~ February 16

Show me Your ways, O Lord; Teach me Your paths. Lead me in Your truth and teach me, For You are the God of my salvation; On You I wait all the day.

Psalm 25: 4-5

As I worked a spiritual program of recovery from alcohol and drugs and began developing a deep and personal relationship with God I learned that when I faced difficulties and indecision and do not know what to do that I should pause and ask God for direction. While waiting on that thought or decision inspired by the Spirit I should relax, stop worrying and fretting. Don't struggle and stop trying to fight the battle myself, after all the battle belongs to the Lord. This process is waiting on God.

But there is no reason to wait on the Lord only during times of difficulty, confusion or indecision. When we wait "all the day" as the above scripture says we learn His ways and His paths and we live constantly in the safety and security of His direction.

As a boy my father would take my brothers and I hunting. I could shoot well. I used to competition shoot, but I was never the woodsman my father and brothers were. So I learned to let my father lead while I waited. I kept my eyes on him. If he started walking, I walked. If he stopped, I stopped. If he got quiet, I tried to get quiet. I crouched when he crouched, got my gun ready when he did, relaxed when he relaxed. His path got me through the woods with little tripping, kept me from stepping in holes or banging my head on branches. By going where he went I found the best way to get through thorn patches that would've made the Brer Rabbit hesitate.

Sometime Dad would stop for a minute and then look back at where I had stopped when he did. He'd call for me to come to him. I'd get close and he'd whisper what to do. Other times he'd start walking again, and I would follow, step for step, on his path. This is how we wait on God all through the day. We keep our eyes on Him. We go where He goes and stop when He stops. Do what He does. Don't do things He doesn't do. The more we're able to do that, the more we stay in a place of His protection, the more we learn His ways and the easier it becomes to follow Him. We have less scratches from the thorns of life, and the holes we can't seem to avoid on our own no longer cause us to stumble.

Waiting on God sets us free, renews our strength with His and gives us peace and security in the midst of the scariest, most treacherous woods of our lives.  So if we want to learn to walk free of the things that have kept us stumbling from hole to hole, tripping over one thing and the next, cut and scratched from the thorns that ensnare, we need to stop looking for a way through the woods and start looking at He who knows the way. Hurry up and wait on the Lord.

Father help us to wait on You in an active way.  Help us to walk where You walk, the way You walk. When we wait on You this way, let us not be afraid or grow weary, but let us walk in the peace and security of who You are and Your great love for us. Amen.