Unshackled Moments ~ February 22 ~ GPS

Recently I spent a little time driving in Dallas with my wife, Leah, and stepdaughter, Amanda. We were on our way to pick up a puppy for Leah. Time mattered, since we had a time we were supposed to meet the man we were buying the puppy from, and, although I didn't realize it until almost too late, how much random driving we did also mattered, since we were low on gas. I had a general idea of where we were going and how to get there. All three of us have some experience with the DFW area.

Leah plugged the destination address into the GPS, and we were on our way. I should have had a clue that we needed to do something a little differently than we were. A few times along the route I moved into the lane we needed to be in before the GPS informed us of the next move we needed to make. I remember at one point being surrounded by traffic, driving in the left hand lane in anticipation of the next highway divergence. The GPS told us that in 800 feet we would need to exit to the left. "I'm glad that I already knew that or we would never have been able to get over in time," I said.

But we kept right on going down the road waiting for the GPS to tell us what to do. Near the end of the journey we found ourselves in a conglomeration of roads and turns. There were many streets going of in many directions, and driving with the flow of traffic made it hard to see the street signs and to know what was coming up. By the time the GPS told us what to do, we were either too far along to navigate where we needed to or didn't have enough time to figure our exactly which road it wanted us to take before it was too late.

Frustration began to set in as we had to make a few loops and circle back arounds in the route in order to get back to where we needed to be. Amanda took the phone and looked at the list of directions. Rather than wait for the GPS to speak the next move, we got some idea of what we needed to do by reading what was needed and what to expect. Soon we were positioning the vehicle correctly and making the right turns. Instead of not hearing the GPS in time to make the right move, the GPS served as confirmation that we were on the right route. A few minutes later we pulled into the place we had been trying to reach.

The Holy Spirit is like a GPS that never loses location lock gets confused or mislead by a map that's wrong and is always able  to guide us properly. But sometimes in our rush to get down the road or in an effort to stay with the flow we go so fast that by the time we hear what the Spirit is saying we have trouble trying to adjust and make the course corrections we need to. Other times in our frustrated, confused or anxious mental, emotional and or spiritual state we don't understand the directions or read the signs around us right and take the wrong path when two choices are close together, even though the Spirit clearly and in time told us what to do.

Listening to the voice of the Spirit is a necessary part of being guided by God. You can not navigate the roads and choices of life without listening to God's Positioning System. But we were never intended to only us the voice feature, and sometimes the hustle, bustle and confusion of life makes that difficult to near impossible. The plan God put forth is to use and be guided by the voice of the Spirit in conjunction with the Word. When you read the Word of God you have a better ability to position yourself correctly in anticipation of the next move. When we are letting the Word guide us the Spirit confirms our moves more than tells us to make major course corrections. When He does need to adjust our path we are closer to where we need to be and have time to hear and respond.

The Word alone, like a map, can lead us to make poor choices because we see the routes but not the current situations involving construction, traffic flow, accidents ahead, etc. Listening to the Spirit alone can be a problem when we are not able to go slowly enough to make sure we understand before life forces us to act or we understand between all the options what the Spirit is telling us to do. But when we fill our hearts and minds with the Word and the voice of the Spirit together we can travel with confidence and faith the the path of God's will will be clear and take us precisely and surely where we need to be.

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t of despair.