Unknown Paths

This is the word of encouragement I gave on Saturday at the youth service.  

I don’t know if they are doing construction where you live, but right now, there is a ton of construction around where we are staying.  They are digging up the dirt to put in sewage pipes.  There are mounds of dirt everywhere.  On Monday, we were trying to get to the beach.  It seemed like every road we were trying to go down had a pile of dirt creating a road block.  We kept going down unknown and unfamiliar paths.  Our driver asked for directions several times.  If we had a GPS, it would have constantly been saying, “recalculating”.  We were in a maze and couldn’t find our way out.

I don’t know about you, but sometimes that’s how I feel in life.  Everything is going well.  Life is good.  Maybe to you that looks like getting good grades in school.  Passing a test that allows you to go to college.  Having lots of friends.  Having lots of money to buy things you want.  You are living your best life.  You can see a bright future ahead of you.    

Then, like those piles of dirt, roadblocks appear.  One day you get robbed.  Maybe your parents get a divorce.  An unexpected death happens in the family.  You fail a really important test.  Life doesn’t happen as you expected.  Plans change.  Your new route is unfamiliar and filled with lots of change.  You’re now lost in the maze. 

Do you know that through all of this-the good and the bad- God still loves you!?  He still cares for you!?  And he has an amazing plan for your life?!  Psalm 139:13 says “For you created my inmost being; you knit me together in my mother’s womb.”  And Jeremiah 29:11-13 says: For I know the plans I have for you,” declares the LORD, “plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future. You will call on me and come and pray to me, and I will listen to you. You will seek me and find me when you seek me with all your heart.

These verses remind us that God knows us intimately and has our best interests at heart, even when we can’t see past the road block.  We just have to continually seek him through the good and bad.  There is a quote that says, “We have no right to ask when sorrow comes why did this happen to me? Unless we ask the same question for every moment of happiness.”

My question for you tonight is… Are you fully trusting in God and his plan for your life on the smooth and easy roads and the bumpy and hard roads with detours that lead you to the unknown?  Is God your GPS—Your God Positioning System—or are you relying on yourself?  Because I promise you, God knows best.  He knows where the exit to the maze is.

Please pray with me: 

Father God, I am fearfully and wonderfully made by you.  You have placed me here on Earth for a beautiful purpose.  I need to trust in your plans even when I don’t understand and even when I cannot see how it is going to end.  Father I give you alone control right now—you are my GPS-you are my guide.  Help me to not grow weary and help me put all my trust in you.  God, your foolishness is still wiser than human wisdom and your weakness is still stronger than human strength.  Thank you for the wonderful plan you have for my life and let me walk boldly on that path.  Amen.