Following God’s Path
One thing that we as parents often strive for is for our children to obey, and preferably the first time. I heard a story about a family that was doing some work on their roof. The wife was in the yard with the child and the husband came down to take a break. A few minutes into the break, they noticed that their son, he was about four years old, had somehow made his way up the ladder onto the roof. He was walking around oblivious to the danger but was very close to the edge, only about a step away. The father hollered up for the child to sit down, and immediately he child sat down where he was, no questions asked, right on the edge of the roof. The father quickly went up the ladder and retrieved the child. If the child had not been taught from an early age that the parents expected swift and unquestioned obedience, it’s very likely that the oblivious child could’ve walked off the edge of that roof, being severely injured or even killed.
But it’s more than just obeying to keep from getting hurt. When we lived in Colorado, my son had always wanted to hang a bird feeder on a tree just outside our patio. He would stand there and watch it, just waiting for the birds to come, but of course, they would never show up while he was standing there. One summer day, we had the patio door open. I was sitting in the living room and look out the screen door to see a squirrel eating from the bird feeder. Squirrels are jumpy, so I tried to quietly call my son. I called his name, and from the other room he hollers back, “What?” I quietly tried telling him to come quickly and quietly. I’m just waiting for him to come bounding into the room and scare away the squirrel, but he quietly comes out and is able to see the squirrel eating all of our bird seed.
We all know it’s important for us to listen and obey, but how do we get to that point of first time obedience? How do we bring ourselves to the point where we can listen and obey, not only to supervisors, mothers and fathers, etc., but also our heavenly father?
In our reading this week we see Paul saying his goodbyes to the elders in Ephesus (Acts 20:18-24). He knows that he is to go to Jerusalem and that hardships and prison await him, but he is compelled to go. I don’t know if you’ve ever been in a place where you know without a doubt that God is telling you something. Maybe it’s been about helping somebody, giving money to someone or something, or teaching a Sunday School class or a new ministry at the church. If you’ve had an experience like that then you know what I’m talking about.
I’ve had times when every piece of logical reasoning inside of me says, “No, don’t do that,” but then there’s that part that says, “It’ll be okay, trust me.” The more and more I think about out, the more and more I find that that’s not what I want to do. It doesn’t make sense. It doesn’t add up. It just doesn’t seem like it’s the logical step to take, but the more I pray about it, the more I seek God’s counsel, the more I know that it’s the right direction to go. This was what Paul was facing.
It’s one thing to know where God is telling you to go and telling you to do, but it’s a different thing entirely when we do it. It’s different when we’re a four-year old standing at the edge of that roof oblivious to what’s going on around us when God tells us to sit down, and we do it. It all comes down to trust. Why does the child obey their parent without asking questions? Why did Paul follow the leading of the Spirit to Jerusalem even though he knew that he’d face hardships and prison? It all comes down to one simple word, TRUST. The child obeys the parent because they trust that obeying is the best course of action. They trust that listening to their parents, even if it’s not fun right now, will be better than disobedience.
The same is true with Paul. He trusted God. He knew that he served a good God, a loving God. He knew that God would not make him go through prison and hardships unless something good was going to come out of it. He put his trust in God and was therefore willing to go to a place that made no logical sense. “I consider my life worth nothing to me, if only I may finish the race and complete the task the Lord Jesus has given me – the task of testifying to the gospel of God’s grace.” (Acts 20:24)
I grew up in the church of the Nazarene doing children’s quizzing and caravans, and to this day I still remember the caravan motto, “Trust in the Lord with all thine heart; and lean not unto thine own understanding. In all thy ways acknowledge him, and he shall direct thy paths.” Proverbs 3:5-6 KJV. They don’t say it in King James any more, but the message is still the same, trust in God and follow his path. Things may seem scary, you may not know what’s going to happen next, but if you trust in God, he will direct your path.
Paul knew where God was leading him, and he knew what awaited him there. Yet he was compelled to go. He was compelled to go towards the trials and hardships because he trusted the one that was leading him. It’s a whole new adventure when we decide to follow God wherever he decides to lead us. That’s part of what we talked about last week, loving and trusting God so much that we’re willing to give him control of our lives. We’re willing to sign a blank contract and allow God to fill it in later. You don’t know where you’re going or how you’ll get there, but I can testify to you that it is one great adventure. The one guiding you is faithful and trustworthy. Are you willing to trust him? Are you willing to follow God’s path wherever it may lead?