The Path.

.a reflection in Proverbs.

“Be still my soul: your God will undertake
To guide the future, as in ages past.
Your hope, your mind, your will let nothing shake;
All now mysterious shall be bright” 
          - “Be Still My Soul” by Catharina von Schlegel (18th century)

Not long ago I shared a reflection (message) on “The Path.” I believe this may be an encouragement and aid again. I speak of a beautiful, rocky, meandering, purposed and craggy path as a metaphor for the guidance and presence of God- God’s will in us and around us.

There is a path, a walking way. Beside a path being a metaphor for God’s guidance- God’s will, I think we can see that the path is also a metaphor for Jesus.  Jesus of course expressed that he was the “way, the truth and the life.” To be connected with God in Christ, to be deeply cognizant and sensitive to Christ in us, is to be in a healthy place. The path has much to do with the person and character of Christ worked out in us.

The direction we are walking from there is likely the path God has planned for us. In fact, we know that God desires to instruct and guide us (Proverbs 1:1-5), that we can ask for wisdom, we can look for God’s caring guidance (Proverbs 2:3-11), and we can depend on God rather than relying solely on our own genius or intuition (Proverbs 3:5-6). So far, we have established a simple premise that God is concerned with and compassionate toward our direction and we can be certain of a great way and companion in Christ. Fourthly, we can commit our way to the Lord and he will direct (Proverbs 16:1-4). To commit our way assumes we are giving something that is of healthy, trustworthy and right (intentioned) virtue as opposed to asking God to bless something that is inherently self seeking, narcissistic, unethical, inhumane etc. Finally, we can be sure that God’s guidance and counsel will persist (Proverbs 19:21).

-gb