God's Guidance Through Trust

He guides me in paths of righteousness for his name's sake. (Ps. 23:3)

Part of the provision of God as my shepherd is his continual guidance. Perhaps this is the main thrust of Jesus' promise, "I will be with you, even to the very end of the age." (Mt. 28) God's guidance is part of the declaration, "I shall not be in want." (Ps.23:1) I will never want for guidance.

Often I do feel a lack of guidance, however. I feel left alone to figure it all out. Is this God leaving me? There may be times in which he wants me to make a choice with a number of things being "his will," just like I may be pleased if my kids decide to play inside or play outside. I am delighted with both.

More often I have a sense that my problem is not with God hiding, but from my own impatience. "Just tell me what to do!" I want to know the easiest way to get through life and I want to use God's omniscience to pave the way. When I do not receive the kind of guidance I want or think I need, then I ask again or look elsewhere, assuming that God has indeed abandoned me to my own devices.

God's agenda is different. He wants me to become like Jesus. He wants to have an intimate relationship with me. He wants me in the family of the heavens, with the Trinity and all the hosts that live with him. Quick and easy answers do not always fit into his purposes. Love, peace, joy, patience, and strength are not developed in my life through just being told what to do for a pain-free existence.

Although I may be overlooking his guidance, he is near and guiding me. The path he takes me on is not the path of doing it right all the time, but the path of becoming the right sort of person. God wants my heart to change and grow in love, not just for me to do the right things. The path of righteousness is, as Abraham and all other believers have found, a path of trust, of faith. Without trusting God as a caring shepherd for myself, the wandering sheep, I will never find true righteousness developing in my life. Instead I will just want to be "right."

All this is done because God is who he is. It's for his name's sake. He will not abandon me because of what he is like. He will guide me because that is what God does. He will take me on paths of true right-ness because that is what he is like. He is truth. He is right. He chooses to do it through loving trust and relationship rather than through coercion or mere command.

Lord, I find myself trying to do what is right, trying to find my way, without drawing close to you. I want answers without trust. I know because I do not wait expectantly. When I become desperate, let me learn how to wait quietly for you to find me, my Shepherd. Amen.

Guidance as the Righteousness of God

Like a horse in open country,

they did not stumble;

like cattle that go down to the plain,

they were given rest by the Spirit of the Lord.

This is how you guided your people

to make for yourself a glorious name. (Is. 63:13)

I love this image of guidance. When God guides, we are like a horse galloping across the prairie and like a contented cow grazing in a green field of grace. God's guidance leads to freedom and rest. The freedom is a freedom from stumbling and falling. The rest is provision and peace. The result shows how good and amazing God is.

Interestingly, this passage in Isaiah refers to the Israelites looking back to their wilderness wanderings with longing. The passage refers to them as they followed God. It could be said that Isaiah is merely being nostalgic, forgetting the complaining and doubting that happened during those days. I think, however, he is pointing not to the "good ole days," but rather to our good God.

The problem with God's guidance was not with his guidance, but with the reception of it from the people. Even with their gripes and slips, they found their way. The main point being that the first step to following God's guidance is understanding that God is not trying to be obscure and cryptic as he guides us, but plain and clear. What gets in my way is my worry and doubt.

Faith is what opens up God's guidance to me. Simple trust in his desire to guide and care for me. This simple trust led Abraham into the "right way" with God (Rom. 4:3). Perhaps righteousness is mostly a matter of guidance. By trust and confidence in God, maybe I can, like Abraham, walk in the right ways because God will guide me. The opposite would be trusting more in something other than my relationship with God as my guiding light.

I find it easy to depart from following God because sometimes he doesn't seem to be going where I want or maybe he is going too slow. I whip out the map of my reason or my feeling or my common sense, pass God, and try to find the right way on my own. Everyone knows what that's like, but everyone still tries it.

Walking alongside the Lord is like galloping over an open field. He shows me things that I would never be able to figure out on my own. Also, walking with God is like being that contented cow. He provides what I need and more as I journey with him. Keeping in step with him also brings me to worship and praise him as he performs amazing deeds in, around, and through me. By contrast, passing God up only yields personal accomplishments that dry up and blow away, frantic busyness that drains me, and recognition for myself that does not help other people (or myself really) on bit.

So righteousness can be seen as being guided rightly. What am I guided by today? What is my source of righteousness, right living, right guidance?