Directions are not my forte. When the mobile GPS came in, it was a grand day in our household. I still lose my way and take wrong turns, but I’m quick to see my flashing blue dot leave the blue line and can begin charting my course back straight away.
Before GPS, these uncharted ventures would often take me half and hour or more of course before realising I was lost.
Have you ever taken the wrong turn? Assumed you were travelling down the right road only to realise you had left the track?
The Holy Spirit is like our spiritual GPS. If we’re attentive to heaven, He’ll chart our course. GPS or not, it’s still easy to get off course. We assume we know the way and in our confidence, we get lost. We can assume that Jesus is with us when indeed He is not. Even Jesus’ parents did it.
Every year Jesus’ parents went to Jerusalem for the Passover festival. 42 When Jesus was twelve years old, they attended the festival as usual. 43 After the celebration was over, they started home to Nazareth, but Jesus stayed behind in Jerusalem. His parents didn’t miss him at first, 44 because they assumed he was among the other travellers. Luke 2:41-43 NLT
Jesus parents assumed He was with them, but they left Him behind. They rested in what was normal, what was the pattern, what they had done in years gone by.
Our salvation is a call to a Spirit led adventure.
It can be frustrating getting off course; we waste time as our little blue dot awaits heavens rerouting. I felt the need for ‘more margin’ recently, after a while I recalled a similar theme that God had begun speaking to me about two months earlier. The theme was less.
- use less
- eat less
- do less
- buy less
- just less
It was a reminder to live life within His grace, trusting Him and not in my own strength. Somehow before I even painted ‘Less’ I got off course. My inclination to more got me working, conquering, planning, eating, spending, doing, not less, but more. Feeling the call strongly to ‘more margin’ I awoke suddenly to God’s last word to me: ‘Less.’ I’d got busy doing more and accidentally forgot less.
My heart was in the right place, but I had charted my own course and assumed Jesus was with me. Really I had left Him out of the equation and the result was a short season of vagabond wandering.
As I walked the beach today, I realised I was off course and repented. I pinpointed the moment when I had taken the steering wheel back and listened to man’s word above God’s. I hadn’t done it intentionally, but in hindsight, it was fairly clear. We can so easily assume Jesus is with us because an idea sounds good.
The job with a Christian boss- ‘that must be a sign.’
A new opportunity that you have prayed for- ‘that has to be God.’
Good ideas are not always God ideas.
We need to make a habit of checking in then rechecking in. It’s up to us, you and me, to include God in every detail of every aspect of our lives. Include Him sooner rather than later. The goal is to catch our blue dot as soon as it leaves its blue line and quickly reroute.
The fastest route from one point to another is not necessarily the obvious one, it is in continued obedience, with an attentiveness to heaven. In 2017 I am so ready to rest in a heavenly economy, one where my less is His more.
“A man can receive nothing unless it has been given to him from heaven. He must increase, but I must decrease.” John the Baptist (John 3:27…30)
My prayer: I don’t mind how long it takes, which way we go or where we are heading, just as long as Jesus is with me. Let me attentive to heaven.
I’m ready to be rerouted, to return to the journey that He mapped out for me.
How about you?
As 2016 comes to a close maybe it’s time to get out your spiritual GPS and see how you’re tracking. Jesus is always with us, but are you with Him?
Where is He leading you?
Merry Chrismas and Happy New Year!
P.S. For those who are currently subscribers of Contemplative Worship you will find a Christmas Gift in your inbox: A free copy of my first eDevotional ‘Now Is The Time.’ I pray that it is a blessing to you as your set your intentions for the new year. xx