Devotional Thought for Today

Proverbs 3: 5-6

“Trust in the Lord with all your heart; do not depend on your own understanding. Seek His will in all you do, and He will show you which path to take.”

In Peter Jackson’s movie The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers, Frodo and his friend, Sam, were on a journey to a destination to fulfill an extraordinary purpose. There was a moment early into their adventure when they experienced some frustration. They had been traveling for days but, according to Sam, the scenery looked strangely familiar. After examining the surroundings, Frodo agreed with his friend’s assessment. They had been moving in circles.

This is an all too familiar occurrence for most of us. Although the current virus that’s impacting the world is novel, we’ve been at this place before. We have experience traveling in circles. There have been times in our lives when the itinerary which was designed to take us from one place to the next had been changed because of a variety of frustrating factors. Now, one would imagine that by having so much familiarity with these kind of experiences we’d become better at managing ourselves when new hiccups arise in our journey. But as many of us have been recently reminded, some responses are hard to change.

If you’re fed up (like I am) with allowing the adjustments to your itinerary to get the best of you, allow me to encourage you to do what sounds so easy, in theory, but presents practical challenges. Abandon the idea that the journey to your destination has to make perfect sense to you. Instead (as the writer of Proverbs 3:5 instructs), put all of your weight into the competence of God, believing that His wisdom is enough to get you to where you need to be. Whatever feeds your desire to have more of a grasp on the direction that you’re going, replace that source with one (the Word of God) that will inspire you to place more trust in the Lord concerning your destiny.

As the prophet Jeremiah reminded the captives in Babylon of God’s opinion about the relationship between what they were dealing with and where they were going, I submit to you. Jeremiah 29:11 states, “For I know the plans I have for you,” says the Lord. “They are plans for good and not for disaster, to give you a future and a hope.” Although things have changed in how you’re going to arrive at our destination, you’re still going to make it there. Don’t worry about what you don’t know. Instead, take a moment to offer God a sacrifice of praise for being the captain of your ship who’s guiding you to safer shores. You’re in good hands with the Lord.

Posted By: Rev. Arthur L. Wilson