Trust the Guide
“Trust in the LORD with all thine heart; and lean not unto thine own understanding.
In all thy ways acknowledge him, and he shall direct thy paths.”
— Proverbs 3:5–6 (KJV)
If you are like me, there have been times in your journey when you sensed a new direction—or perhaps simply decided to take one. Perhaps it relates to work, or relationships, or other changes in your life.
In my own seasons, I knew God had given me free will. But assuming full control and taking off armed with only my own free will, often produced results I did not like. Too often when I was determined to “do it by myself,” I imagine God saw me much as I saw my children when they were toddlers, determined to dress themselves. Shirt buttons all wrong, shoes on the wrong feet, and two different colored socks.
As adults, we may have built successful careers, raised families, and accumulated years of life experience. We sometimes begin to think, I’ve handled plenty of things successfully. Why bother God?
I heard Dr. David Gibbs, Jr., describe this tendency in a sermon: “Hey, Lord. I’ll take care of 90% of this if you will take care of the 10%. Let’s be partners.”
God doesn’t want to be our 10% partner. He asks us to trust Him with 100%—and allow Him to be our Guide.
The bottom line is regardless of any success or accomplishments I have achieved in the past—my life runs much smoother if I entrust my hopes, dreams, and life to my Guide—the Good Shepherd, rather than depending or leaning on my own understanding.
In 1983, a friend and I took advantage of a KVIL-Braniff Airlines trip to London. It was a very short trip—three days and three nights. I had been advised to take advantage of a tour guide, rather than striking out to explore the city.
We booked two tours starting the next day, one to Westminster Abbey. But we had time to kill that first afternoon, so we headed out to explore on our own. During our wanderings we saw St Paul’s. Thrilled, we hurried inside and marveled at the beautiful mosaics on the walls and other things of interest. I was a bit surprised that it was not really that large a church and also wondered at the number of Catholic Nuns walking around. We finally returned to our hotel and told some of our new friends from the plane what we had discovered.
The next morning, we boarded the tour bus to see all the stops through the West End. Neither my friend nor I had a map or organized facts about what we were hoping to see. But we had a very knowledgeable tour guide. I’ll never forget touring Westminster Abbey.
Westminster Abbey was breathtaking. Everywhere we looked there were soaring arches, intricate carvings, beautiful ceilings, and centuries of history tucked into almost every corner. Our tour guide was a wealth of fascinating knowledge. The magnificent carved ceilings were beautiful. Our guide told us that each stonemason had to leave his mark on the piece he carved. Later, when all those individual pieces were fitted together, if one didn’t fit, they knew whose work it was. As we walked through the Abbey, our guide also told us that people paid for burial space in Westminster Abbey. The poet Ben Jonson, unable to afford the usual amount of space, was buried upright. Those are only two fascinating pieces of information about the Abbey we heard that morning. In fact, the entire tour of not only the Abbey, but the West End included an almost overwhelming amount of information we didn’t know. We would have missed so much had we toured these places on our own. What a vast difference it was between our touring St. Paul’s and Westminster Abby! The St. Paul’s we’d previously wandered into was not St. Paul’s Cathedral – it was St. Paul’s Church.
How often do we set out in a new direction in life exactly as my friend and I did in London that first afternoon? You may strike out without a guide, not really knowing where you’re headed, simply looking forward to what you might find. You may even become rather pleased with yourself when things seem to be going well—until you discover you’ve been touring “the wrong St. Paul’s.”
In my own life, I have finally learned to totally trust God and give him 100% of the problem. At least most of the time. I have learned the hard way that attempting to solve things on my own doesn’t always end well.
But what about times when I am trusting my guide, clamoring for his direction and still wondering what to do next? Where do I go? How do I get there?
His response to my “suggestion” is found in the Lord’s Prayer: “Give us this day our daily bread.” I do not think that command is limited to “bread.” We are to bring all our needs to Him daily, trusting Him with the future.
The Children of Israel certainly had to learn that after they walked across the Red Sea. God dropped food—manna—from the sky. But He didn’t give them a week’s or month’s supply. They were given what they needed for the day, and if they attempted to save some for the next day, it spoiled.
There will also be times when you are certain God is your Guide, but the path He directs you to take doesn’t make a lot of sense. You may want to question Him, “Are You sure?” You may even begin to wonder whether the direction really came from God or was simply your own thought.
I wonder what Joshua thought when God told him how Jericho would be conquered. March around the city? Once a day for six days? Then seven times on the seventh? Yet Joshua followed God’s instructions and gave those orders to the people. And they marched. Day after day, Joshua continued to obey, even though nothing appeared to be happening. We can only imagine what the people of Jericho—or even some of his own people—may have thought. But Joshua kept following God’s orders.
It wasn’t until they completed that seventh march on the seventh day around the city that they finally understood the importance of following God’s commands. The walls came down—they did not topple over or fall to pieces. My brother visited the site a few years ago and said they looked as if they had sunk into the ground!
We want an itinerary. We want answers. We want all of these things furnished BEFORE we follow what God has given us to do. But what God wants is for us to trust that He will lead and guide us – sometimes one day at a time.
What is your wall? Maybe you’re already following what you believe God directed you to do. You’ve marched around that wall—and nothing has changed. You’ve prayed. You’ve obeyed. You’ve waited. The wall looks just as solid today as it did when you started.
Don’t measure God’s direction by whether you can see results.
Joshua wasn’t pursuing Joshua’s command. He was following God’s command. That’s crucial. He wasn’t marching because knocking down Jericho happened to be his dream. God had directed him.
So, if you know God has given you something to do, an unmoving wall isn’t necessarily a demand to quit.
Trust and obedience doesn’t mean stubbornly continuing along the route we chose. Sometimes obeying means continuing around the wall. Sometimes it means following when our Guide turns us in an entirely different direction.
London taught us we don’t need a map- we need a guide.
Daily bread teaches us to trust God for today.
Jericho teaches us what obedience looks like when God’s directions don’t make sense.
And to reach the final destination—trust and obey.
CLOSING BLESSING:
May you trust God with today’s step, follow when He leads, and rest in knowing the One who directs your path already knows where it will take you. For He is the stonemason who leaves his mark on our lives, and whether you see it today or far off in the distant future, every piece shall fit.
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The journey began with a book.
He Ordered My Steps: From Shattered Dreams to Something Beautiful is the story of how God guided my path through places I never expected—and showed me that He knew the destination all along.