Many of us use AI software to obtain information or to automate certain areas of our lives. We use Global Positioning Systems, or GPS, to help us navigate our many voyages to ensure we get to our destinations in the shortest possible time. Some of us use software like Apple Maps, Waze, Google Maps and so many others. Whichever one we use is determined by personal preference.
Have you ever noticed that after you enter the address for the place you want to go, the GPS only tells you what the next immediate step is? It never tells you all of the steps. Sure you can scroll through and see the steps, but neither Siri, Alexa or any of the other systems will actually speak the full list of instructions, only the next step. And you won’t hear the step that follows until you have completed the step that was spoken.
I believe following God is like following a GPS. You will know your destination, where you want to go, what you want to be, and He will give you the next step to take, but He won’t give you any further instructions until you complete the task He has given you.
In the book of Genesis, chapter 12, God told Abram to journey to a place that He would show him. He never told him where that place was, just that He would show it to him. God simply expected trust and obedience from Abram in exchange for the blessing. There are so many other examples in which God takes people on life journeys, where they have no idea what is going to happen to them because of the circumstances they find themselves in, but because they’ve yielded their will to do His will, they found themselves in places they never expected to be. The stories of Ruth, Esther, and Daniel come to mind.
We tend to scroll through the list of instructions in the GPS because we are impatient and want to cut the time needed to reach where we want to be. Usually we are in such a rush that we don’t pay close attention to the path we are on to notice anything noteworthy, like a landmark, that will help us to remember the way the next time we have to take that trip again.
Unlike with Siri and the other programs, God doesn’t give us a list of instructions. We simply have to trust Him. This is where many of us make mistakes. We look at our circumstances and situations, we look at what other people are doing, we listen to what other people are saying, and we make decisions on what we think the next step should be. Then we end up getting ourselves turned around and asking God for a miracle. Some of us even get mad at God and even discouraged because we don’t know where to turn or what to do.
We might say, “if God would just give us the full set of instructions, it would save us a lot of time.” But let’s be honest, if we knew what was ahead of us and what we would have to deal with, many of us, if not all of us, would simply say “nope, never mind”.
When we are not sure where to go next, we are just supposed to simply move forward, to keep going until we are given instructions. Many of us have “zigged” when we should have “zagged” on our respective journeys, and getting back on track is what has taken up so much of our time.
When we make a wrong turn, the GPS will recalibrate and give us new step to follow. Again, not a list of instructions, just a single task. It will revise the instructions and recalculate the time it will now take to get us to our final destination.
God will also revise our journey in order to get us back on track to where He has determined for us to be, but He will never violate the free will He has given us. Getting back on track in a timely fashion is largely due to our personal growth, maturity, and willingness to yield to His will.
It is always good to look back in retrospect to see where we might be at this moment in time if we were obedient to His voice and patient enough to grow with the process.
