“Where he leads me….

“Where he leads me….I’ll sometimes, when I feel like it, when I’m completely lostfollow.”

By: Monique Smith

The title of this devotional came from a Jessica Reedy song: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lP8K4Ij2x6c . I absolutely LOVE this song but found myself singing this song which proved to be contradictory to my love lifestyle with the Father pertaining to my acknowledging His word on a consistent basis. Basically during the month of January, I was not in my Bible reading my word hardly at all. But this song as well as other great worship songs were constantly playing in my car and on my phone....but unfortunately, without reading the Word, which is the map and path to the Father and the footprints of Jesus, I can’t follow anything!

And this my friends, leads to the revelation which will be typed below:

One Sunday night I stayed in Whitsett, NC with my Godsister and decided to wait until Monday morning at 5:45 a.m. to leave her house and head home and then go straight to work. Before I left her house, I googled the directions from there back to Reidsville. I wrote them down and read over them a few times before I actually left. I felt ready and prepared. The trip was going to take me about 38 minutes. So for the first part of the directions, I successfully was on track and following the directions. After a while, however, I started to get really comfortable with things and then decided to use my own “sense” as to judge where my next turns should be based on street names, signs, and any other thing that made sense (might I add that I had NEVER been in that area before in life….so idk where that idea came from!) My “common sense” got me lost. I ended up in Burlington somehow. As I’m riding through Burlington, I notice that the area looks familiar. I’ve seen the street names before and saw some familiar building. And I came across this one road that I KNEW I had traveled before, so I took that road! **Mapquest directions? I completely tossed them, I was just going off of my head knowledge**

As I continued driving down the road, I got a feeling that I wasn’t heading in the right direction. So I pulled over and mapped directions to Reidsville on my phone. ((Sooo now you may be wondering why I didn’t use my phone in the first place. Well I had 5% battery life left and no phone charger. I was tryna conserve)). After mapping the area, I see that I am headed towards CHAPEL HILL!....which is NOT in the direction to Reidsville! So I turn around and get back on track following my phone. During my efforts to get back on track, my phone dies. NOW I’m really lost. But, me being the confident one, I still try to fend for myself and pretend that I know where I’m going. So I keep driving straight. Ummm….I then ended up in some residential area with no street lights and it was just a hot mess. SO I attempt to find my way back to the main road where there were lights and stores. So since I was completely lost and still had to get to work, I backtracked and ran inside a Walgreens I saw to get a phone charger (Yes I could’ve done that the first time….but I just didn’t wanna stop for some reason).

….Umm okay Mo, what do you mean by all of this?

This relates to how we take direction and learn from the Word of God. A lot of us may read over some scriptures in the Bible before we leave the house in the morning or before bed at night and we feel confident and “set” on the knowledge that God shared there. But throughout the day, we many times dissert following that path we just learned of from the Word, but instead use our own “sense” or head knowledge to handle situations. We say things like “Oh, this has happened before” or “I know people who dealt with this before…so imma do this or do that”….It may feel that you’re making the right decision and going down the right path but you may be completely LOST. Completely out of touch. On the wrong path. It is not until you turn back to the map, which is the Word, that we can get back on track. In my case, it wasn’t until I went and got a car charger to look at the map, that I was able to get back on track. So how can we, as Christians, who are following the path of Christ, feel like we can figure out life on our own. NOT possible! Reading the Word once a week is NOT enough. Your brain can’t hold all the directions to heaven at the forefront when the enemy throws countless distractions in your mind. We don’t have time on this earth to continually go down the wrong path. YOU NEVER KNOW when your life will end! You may not even finish this devotional!! WE NEED the Word!

Now if you look back to the direction where my head was leading me….it was towards Chapel Hill. I LOVE the Triangle area for many reasons and its always great to go there, but is that the destination that I wanted to go? No. Just like if we don’t read our word, we’ll end up somewhere that’s comfortable and cool, other people will be there, but that’s not the path that God wanted us to be on!

Prayer: God, I love you! Thank you for providing me with direction throughout my entire daily life with your Holy Word and with your Holy Spirit. Please give me more desire and wisdom to read your Word! I’m tired of getting lost and caught up in the things of this world! I understand that every sin begins with a thought and every spiritual battle is won or lost at the threshold of my mind and I know without your Word, there is no way my mind can be renewed! Guide me in your ways dear God. You are my strength. You have redeemed me. I love you. In Jesus name, Amen.