Tag: Proverbs

Crossroads

by Nicky Wood

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.

Great Expectations

by Nicky Wood

Proverbs 29:18 (KJV) “Where there is no vision, the people perish.”

What is your vision for the rest of your life? And how has it been influenced by unmet expectations?

We’ve all been hurt by unmet expectations. Every day when we wake up, whether we admit it or not, we have expectations of the people we love the most. Yet people will always disappoint you in some way or another… our humanity makes us fallible.

We can perhaps still comprehend it to a degree when other people fail us even though we might be heartbroken.

But what of the expectations we have of God?

How does it influence our prayer life, our vision and our purpose when some of our earnest prayers have not been answered and it feels like God is not listening to us, or some unexpected tragedy strikes? Will we admit to ourselves (and to God) that we are disappointed and discouraged?

God knows all about you. He knows what your next prayer will be. He knows what your next sin will be. He knows you completely and still He loves you infinitely. Even though you might be angry and disillusioned, He is not angry or disillusioned by you.

The worst thing you can do is to withdraw from Him because that which you have expected from Him has not materialized. I want to elaborate on this concept in my next few posts because I want you to find out more about who He is and what He wants to do in your life through His faithfulness.

I truly believe that when we have a revelation of His faithfulness and when we pray knowing who He is and what He is capable of doing, when we have faith the size of a mustard seed, we will see mountains being moved. When we pray within the will of God, for the glory of God and not ourselves, and in a trusting manner, we will start to see the manifestation of our prayers. When we keep record of all He has done in the past for us and meditate on this, our future prayers can become even more powerful.

Jeremiah 29:11-13: ““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. In those days when you pray, I will listen. If you look for me wholeheartedly, you will find me.””

You can count on His promises for your future. He never changes and He never fails…Numbers 23:19: “God is not a human, that he should lie, not a human being, that he should change his mind. Does he speak and then not act? Does he promise and not fulfill?”

I pray that you won’t fall into the trap of letting your vision die because of past disappointments and unmet expectations.