Spiritual GPS

Trust in the LORD with all your heart

and lean not on your own understanding;


in all your ways acknowledge him,
and he will make your paths straight. Proverbs 3:5-6

I was looking at my GPS and realized how much easier it has made driving for me. Whenever I am lost, need to find an ATM, or am curious of which route is the fastest, I simply need to push a few buttons, and the GPS answers every question how to get from point A to point B in a fast an efficient manner. This is so much more efficient than my old way, which was pulling out my road atlas that I purchased every year, and then methodically spending the night before plotting out my way, which often time had a detour that I could neither anticipate nor navigate efficiently through to get back to the correct route.

I was reading a book about how we are naturally analytical about problems. It could be as simple as which brand of green beans to buy, or something as complex as what kind of car to purchase. The more complex the decision becomes, the more we are likely to spend time weighing all the options. Sometimes, we weigh those options so much that we end up being paralyzed to make a decision and become stuck in a rut. This deals most likely with something that we are trying to change. Maybe we’re trying to figure out the best way to lose weight or how to get our children to behave differently. What it says is that sometimes our problem is not motivation. It can be our natural tendency analyze because our own natural tendencies to just see the problem. Our minds are stuck in the same old beliefs that insist that we are not capable of or too resistant to change.  This deals most likely with something that we are trying to change, and in these cases, we need some kind of direction to make a decision.

In our spiritual growth, it is the trust in our Heavenly Father that allows for change in our lives that is transforming. If we lean on our own understanding, we only know of what others or we would say. You are this type of person, and you will always be that person. While many of these things may be true of the person you have been, trusting and acknowledging Him will lead to being a brand new person. People today will look at you as the person you once were, but through continual prayer and habitual acknowledgment of Jesus Christ as the leader of our lives, we become reborn not just in word but also in deeds. We become filled with the fruits of the spirit, and the old self slowly becomes a part of our past. Bitterness becomes kindness. Anxiety becomes patience. We become the embodiment of 1 Corinthians 13 (the chapter of Love).

Change is possible, but true life transformational change is not possible without some direction. God is the one partner we have in our lives who is true, just, and without fail. He gives us the necessary direction that is essential for spiritual growth, and our only need is to follow that direction. My prayer is that we remember to trust God to provide us with direction for our spiritual growth.  Amen.