He Will Lead Us

Devotional for Friday 7/22/11
Repost from Friday, November 5, 2010

“And He led them on safely and in confident trust,

so that they feared not,

but the sea overwhelmed their enemies.”

Psalm 78:53

(Amplified Bible)

As I was leaving my house one day, I noticed a little squirrel in the middle of the road. As he saw my truck fast approaching, that little squirrel seemed to “freeze” in his tracks. In a split second he froze, and then he went “high tailing” it as fast as he could, right back into the direction that he had come from.

Now, this may not sound so unusual, but as I began to ponder this, some things came to my mind. The first one was that if you were where I was, at my “vantage” point, you would have seen that the little squirrel was more than three quarters of the way across the road when he saw me. It would have been much easier, and faster, for him to continue to move forward in his journey. However, he chose to turn and run right back into the very place that he had come from.

How many times have we, as Christians, been to that place of being “almost there” in our “walking through” or “walking out” something in our lives. At times we have almost “made it” to the place of overcoming, and yet for whatever reason, we have become frightened and that fear has sent us right back into the place that we were trying so hard to leave.

The second thing I noticed was what happened to that little squirrel when he saw my truck barreling down on top of him. He froze. He saw something that was so big and it was headed right towards him. He probably also heard the sound of the engine. He probably “felt” like a goner. Between what he “saw”, what he “heard”, and what he “felt” he had to somehow decide what he should do. What course of action would be the best for him to take at this time, and what direction should he go in.

How clearly this pertains to our Christian walk, also. At times, we also “see” those things that are “huge” in our sight, and sometimes they look as if they are headed right towards us. We also “hear” the “roar of that engine” inside of us, as we listen to the overwhelming sounds that are all about us. Everything inside of us responds to what is happening on the outside, and soon our feelings on the inside are what are determining what action we will take, and what direction we will choose to run in.

The third and last thing that I noticed was this. The little squirrel, although so close to being on the “other side” of his journey, responded to all of this in a way that sent him right back into the place where he had come from. He went back to the familiar. He chose to run back into what he knew, rather than to continue on his path into a new place.

I cannot help but think that we are just like that little squirrel. Here we are, going through our journeys, minding our own business, being productive and happy, when “boom” before we know it, something comes along and sends us “high tailing” it right back into the place we had just made up our minds to travel from. What that little squirrel didn’t know was that I would have slowed down to allow him to cross that street, and to go forward in his journey. He didn’t know that there was someone watching out for his welfare, because he couldn’t see me. What that little squirrel also didn’t know was that I cared.

Isn’t this like us, how we try so hard to determine our own paths. We think that we are in charge of our own destiny, and so many times we opt to go back to the familiar. We think that we are the ones that need to protect ourselves, and so often we end up in a “familiar” but frustrating cycle in our lives. We take a few steps and are determined to “make it” this time, only to be frightened into going back the way we came because of what we see, hear and feel.

We seem to forget that there is a God Who loves us. We forget that there is a God who knows the way that we should go. We forget that there is a God who is willing and able to protect us on our journey. We forget that there is a God Who can see the things that we cannot see, and that we must trust Him. We forget that there is a God Who wants only the best for us, and we forget that He will patiently wait for and stand beside us until we are able, and ready to continue on in the journey that He has laid out for us.

Written by Beverley A. Napier