Getting Lost

      I am inclined to get lost easily whether it be a woods or a populated city area.  It makes little difference.  I just get turned around a couple of times and I could easily be lost. While in the Navy, we docked at a city in Southern Chile, named Punta Arenas.  It was at the foot of the Andes Mountains and when the wind starts to blow, almost everything is swept into the sea.  The captain of  our ship advised us to be close to the ship at all times and should a breeze start, make your way to the ship immediately.   Knowing my propensity for becoming turned around, I ventured off of the main dock but kept the ship in sight at all times.  I didn’t see much of Puntas Arenas that day.  God gives us some good directions in reference to knowing which way to go in life.  Proverbs 3:5-6 says, “Trust in the LORD with all thine heart; and lean not unto thine own understanding. In all thy ways acknowledge him, and he shall direct thy paths.”  This passage is one of those wall Plaque verses that you can purchase in many bookstores.  It is sound advice.  There are three things that need to be done in order to keep on the right path.  We are to Trust in the LORD with all of our heart.  We are to not follow our own own inclinations and we are to acknowledge the LORD in all of our ways.  Wow!  It sounds like a simple formula for never getting lost even in our spiritual lives.  Okay, just take the first one and endeavor to trust the LORD with all of our hearts.  I dare say that many of us may have failed in this one even since we got up this morning.  It is easy to say that I trust the LORD with all of my heart but then when the first problem comes, we find ourselves wondering what we shall do.  Soon, anxiety and fear creep in and we begin to devise plans to make things happen ourselves.  Thus, we find ourselves following our own path instead of the LORD’s path.  That is when our “own understanding” comes into play.  Perhaps we heard of some advice from another person or we read a “self help” book that describes how to be rich and famous.  Our own plans will get us lost in a maze for sure.  When we do follow the LORD’s direction, we find that we will arrive where God intended us to be and in complete safety.  What do we say then?  That is where we need to give God the credit and not ourselves.  It is acknowledging that God did it.  The world may not like hearing it so often when God is given credit for something publicly.  If God helped you, then tell the world that He did it and not yourself or some worldly person.  Praise God today for His working in all of our lives each and every day.