“Your word is a lamp unto my feet and a light to my path.” [Ps 119:105]
These can be confusing days we are living in. People are fighting to survive economically in a globally unstable world. People who did everything right to ensure a secure financial future have lost their life’s savings with little hope of getting it back through the stock market. Panic and indecision have set in for multitudes of people who are desperate for answers.
More and more people face the uncertainty of job losses. College graduates who entered college with dreams have now graduated only to find one of the worse job markets in recent memory. Government bailouts and stimulus packages have done little to turn things around. There seem to be fewer jobs to go around. Things look pretty grim and the tide of confusion continues to swell like a tidal wave.
Some families are forced to contemplate moving to go where the work is. Others scramble from week to week to scrounge a meager existence barely scraping by. This only produces more and more stress causing some families to be torn apart at the seams.
Where are the answers? The President who talked big to get elected has not found the solution so far. Economists who make big bucks to steer the country in the right fiscal direction seem to have led us to a dead end road. For the longest time people have told us education was power but tell that to the recent graduates who have sent out hundreds of resumes only to come up empty handed and who live under the stress of massive student loans to pay for that education.
Like I said in the beginning, these are confusing days. Some people have the good fortune to have a secure job and plenty of money not only for today but also for rainy days in the future. It seems to me more and more people are trudging through life on the other side of the coin. In times like this multitudes of decisions confront the confused. Do we stay the course or do we pursue a different career? Do we go back to school to get a more marketable degree or do we stay in our chosen field of profession? Do we take our money out the stock market so as not to lose everything or do we believe our investment counselors who tell us to ride it out and that the market will bounce back? Do we down size our homes in a housing market where properties continue to lose their value but where people continually struggle to make ends meet?
Where can we go to find answers? I love what Ps 119:105 says. God’s word is like a lamp that gives light on the path for our feet. It does not say that God’s word is a flood light, a light house, or even a light tower. God’s word is a lamp. Think in terms of a candle or a lantern. The light given off may only help us see enough to take our next step or two. If we look down the long dark path ahead us we might not be able to see very far. God’s word gives us enough light to take the next few steps. Our path is illuminated enough to keep walking through the darkness and confusion of our times.
When you and I really need answers we can go to the Bible and find direction. I recently talked to a distraught person who needed a little counsel. At one point I said, “If you want to hear what the world says you will have to talk to someone else. If you want to know what the Bible says I can try to help you.” The contents of the scriptures seem antiquated to our modern times. Experts have ridiculed people who read their Bibles and try to live their lives according to the principles they learn there. Many so called wise men have made themselves to look foolish by doing it their own ways. The most rock solid people I know who know how to cope with adversity and who continue to forge through life come hell or high water are people who read the good book. In the pages of the Bible they have found solace, hope, guidance, strength, assurance, and peace.
I am proposing that each of you reading this begin to saturate your mind in the scriptures if this is not your habit already and plead to God for wisdom and direction about the path you are to take. You may have tried everything and everyone else to help you. What do you have to lose? If God can really help illumine the path you are to walk by shedding light along the way, isn’t that a better option than groping in the darkness and finding yourself unknowingly walking toward disaster near the edge of a cliff. Let God guide and light your path. You may only have enough light to see the next few steps or the next few days, but that is better than no light at all. You may not be able to see years down the road. That’s okay! God knows the way. He knows every turn, every hole, everything that could cause us to stumble. We are not the first people to have to walk through confusing times and God used His word to light the path for them too. Trust Him and walk the path He illuminates.
You can continue to do what feels right or listen to the experts contradict themselves about what we should do. Or you could chose today to make opening your Bible daily a life long habit as you get a little more light to keep walking. This little habit in my life has made all the difference. Sitting with an open Bible and seeking God for direction, hope, comfort, and counsel, not only for myself, but for those who sit in the pews on Sunday has made all the difference. God has used His word to guide me through some harrowing and confusing paths. Need direction? Desperate for hope? Confused and looking for answers? Go to the God of the scriptures who offers a lighted path.
These can be confusing days we are living in. People are fighting to survive economically in a globally unstable world. People who did everything right to ensure a secure financial future have lost their life’s savings with little hope of getting it back through the stock market. Panic and indecision have set in for multitudes of people who are desperate for answers.
More and more people face the uncertainty of job losses. College graduates who entered college with dreams have now graduated only to find one of the worse job markets in recent memory. Government bailouts and stimulus packages have done little to turn things around. There seem to be fewer jobs to go around. Things look pretty grim and the tide of confusion continues to swell like a tidal wave.
Some families are forced to contemplate moving to go where the work is. Others scramble from week to week to scrounge a meager existence barely scraping by. This only produces more and more stress causing some families to be torn apart at the seams.
Where are the answers? The President who talked big to get elected has not found the solution so far. Economists who make big bucks to steer the country in the right fiscal direction seem to have led us to a dead end road. For the longest time people have told us education was power but tell that to the recent graduates who have sent out hundreds of resumes only to come up empty handed and who live under the stress of massive student loans to pay for that education.
Like I said in the beginning, these are confusing days. Some people have the good fortune to have a secure job and plenty of money not only for today but also for rainy days in the future. It seems to me more and more people are trudging through life on the other side of the coin. In times like this multitudes of decisions confront the confused. Do we stay the course or do we pursue a different career? Do we go back to school to get a more marketable degree or do we stay in our chosen field of profession? Do we take our money out the stock market so as not to lose everything or do we believe our investment counselors who tell us to ride it out and that the market will bounce back? Do we down size our homes in a housing market where properties continue to lose their value but where people continually struggle to make ends meet?
Where can we go to find answers? I love what Ps 119:105 says. God’s word is like a lamp that gives light on the path for our feet. It does not say that God’s word is a flood light, a light house, or even a light tower. God’s word is a lamp. Think in terms of a candle or a lantern. The light given off may only help us see enough to take our next step or two. If we look down the long dark path ahead us we might not be able to see very far. God’s word gives us enough light to take the next few steps. Our path is illuminated enough to keep walking through the darkness and confusion of our times.
When you and I really need answers we can go to the Bible and find direction. I recently talked to a distraught person who needed a little counsel. At one point I said, “If you want to hear what the world says you will have to talk to someone else. If you want to know what the Bible says I can try to help you.” The contents of the scriptures seem antiquated to our modern times. Experts have ridiculed people who read their Bibles and try to live their lives according to the principles they learn there. Many so called wise men have made themselves to look foolish by doing it their own ways. The most rock solid people I know who know how to cope with adversity and who continue to forge through life come hell or high water are people who read the good book. In the pages of the Bible they have found solace, hope, guidance, strength, assurance, and peace.
I am proposing that each of you reading this begin to saturate your mind in the scriptures if this is not your habit already and plead to God for wisdom and direction about the path you are to take. You may have tried everything and everyone else to help you. What do you have to lose? If God can really help illumine the path you are to walk by shedding light along the way, isn’t that a better option than groping in the darkness and finding yourself unknowingly walking toward disaster near the edge of a cliff. Let God guide and light your path. You may only have enough light to see the next few steps or the next few days, but that is better than no light at all. You may not be able to see years down the road. That’s okay! God knows the way. He knows every turn, every hole, everything that could cause us to stumble. We are not the first people to have to walk through confusing times and God used His word to light the path for them too. Trust Him and walk the path He illuminates.
You can continue to do what feels right or listen to the experts contradict themselves about what we should do. Or you could chose today to make opening your Bible daily a life long habit as you get a little more light to keep walking. This little habit in my life has made all the difference. Sitting with an open Bible and seeking God for direction, hope, comfort, and counsel, not only for myself, but for those who sit in the pews on Sunday has made all the difference. God has used His word to guide me through some harrowing and confusing paths. Need direction? Desperate for hope? Confused and looking for answers? Go to the God of the scriptures who offers a lighted path.
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