Jeremiah 6:16 (NLT) “This is what the Lord says: Stop at the crossroads and look around. Ask for the old, godly way, and walk in it. Travel its path, and you will find rest for your souls.”
I’ll admit – I’m terrible when it comes to directions. I can even get lost while walking around in a shopping mall! Fortunately for me, (and quite a few other people that I know of) modern technology has made it much easier to find a location. One of my favourite apps is Google Maps, it is just so incredibly useful!
Over 2,000 years ago when the Prophet Jeremiah wrote the Book of Jeremiah, he didn’t have the luxury of opening Google Maps on his latest smart phone. He had something much better though. He knew the One who was familiar with all the roads, and not just the physical ones, but all the roads of life, including intimate knowledge of where each road led.
It’s thousands of years later, and the old, godly way, as Jeremiah calls it, is not necessary the most popular way or the easy way. It’s most likely not the convenient or the scenic route. Yet it is the one that he is asking us to search for. To take the time in the midst of our busy lives to actually stop and ask God without rushing ahead into whatever seems like the right path in that moment. And the promise is something that we all long for in a world where everything can steal our peace at any moment – the promise of rest for our souls.
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.”
If we can trust Google Maps to take us from point A to B in this day and age, without trying to rely on our own understanding, surely we can trust God to show us which road to take on the journey of our every day lives. It’s so easy to get lost. It’s so easy to rush ahead and choose whatever path may seem best to us, but God is waiting for us to stop and ask Him and then be willing to step out in obedience onto whichever road He points to, travelling along it until he shows us the next path to take.
If we can commit to doing this – the greatest promise of rest for our souls will await us.
The Faithfulness of God 