Pay Attention to the Road Signs

This is an excerpt from chapter one of Road Signs for Living

    Our spiritual journey looks much the same as that long trip from Michigan to Tennessee. Life contains a pattern of changes – Roads cross paths with other roads and detours interrupt our travels. Have you had a similar experience? Have you, like me, noticed that things that used to move slowly now speed past like a bullet train?  Have you asked how do I handle these changes? Where is God in the struggles? Does He care when I am in a battle with depression, in the midst of financial instability or struggling with marital problems? Does he know that my heart is pointed toward Him, but sometimes my feet just can’t seem to follow?

     The answer is yes He is there. Yes He knows, and absolutely yes He cares. We see the answer to these questions throughout the Word of God. From Genesis to Revelation we can recognize God’s hand in history on a personal as well as a global level.

       He watches over his people—Genesis 6:8 - “But Noah found grace in the eyes of the Lord.” KJV

      He guides—Genesis 12:1 - “Now the LORD had said to Abram, ‘Leave your country, your people and your father’s household and go to the land I will show you.”’ (NIV)  

     He protects—II Thessalonians 3:3 - “But the Lord is faithful, and he will strengthen and protect you from the evil one.” (NIV)
    
     He intervenes in history—Genesis 11:5-9 -  “But the LORD came down to see the city and the tower that the men were building. The LORD said, ‘If as one people speaking the same language they have begun to do this, then nothing they plan to do will be impossible for them. Come, let us go down and confuse their language so they will not understand each other.’ So the LORD scattered them from there over all the earth, and they stopped building the city. That is why it was called Babel—because there the LORD confused the language of the whole world. From there the LORD scattered them over the face of the whole earth.”’ (NIV) 

      He intervenes personally*—Luke 1:26-27 -  “In the sixth month, God sent the angel Gabriel to Nazareth, a town in Galilee, to a virgin pledged to be married to a man named Joseph, a descendant of David. The virgin’s name was Mary. (NIV)

* God’s intervention in a personal situation can also be used to change history. We have already seen this in the Scriptures relating to Noah and Abram.

     He cares—I Peter 5:7 – “Cast all your anxiety on him because he cares for you.”  (NIV)

     Most wonderful of all, He loves—John 3:16-17 - “For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life. For God sent not his Son into the world to condemn the world; but that the world through him might be saved.” (KJV)

He loves us so much that He provides every opportunity for us to live the life that He has planned for you and for me. Wisdom comes when we study His Word, talk with Him every day, listen attentively, and live a life obedient to His instruction. Setting up road signs and guideposts along our way will help us remember where we came from, to whom we belong (God), and where we are going.