"Teach me thy way, O Lord, and lead me in a plain path." Psalm 27:11
A convert in Africa was once heard to remark, "The trail is hard and tangled, but I am not afraid, for there is a Man up ahead!" Yes, our Saviour always goes before us for He is the Good Shepherd. He is ever out in front, smoothing out the tomorrows, but it is our duty to follow in His way. The plain path is not always the easy one, but it is the right one if He is leading.
The story is told of an old Scotch woman who tramped about selling goods from house to house. She was in the habit of tossing a stick into the air when she came to a crossroad and then taking the direction in which it pointed. One day she was observed tossing the stick several times. On being questioned, she said the road to the right looked so very dreary that she continued to toss the stick until it pointed to the left, for that seemed to her to be a much nicer way. How often we go to God for guidance in the same fashion. If His way seems dull we want to choose a brighter one, forgetting that He sees the end as well as the beginning. Only as we seek to know His will and earnestly follow in His way will we find our steps plainly directed and our life's journey lying along the highway of peace and blessing.
It is well for us to remember the words of Moody when he said, "Every hard duty which lies in your path that you would rather not do, that will cost you pain, or struggle, or sore effort to do, has a hidden sweet in it. Not to do it, at whatever cost, is to miss God's blessing. Every heavy load that you are called to lift hides in itself some strange secret of strength."
Study His Word, follow the Holy Spirit's leading, and you will find the plain path to be a highway of joy, but also a narrow way of holiness and self-denial.
"Bread For Each Day"
No comments:
Post a Comment