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The following devotion is a submission that I sent to Compel Training a couple months ago during their annual devotional writing contest. I had never written a devotional before and I had just joined the website. The week after I joined they had a live training with tips for writing devotionals. So, after watching it, I decided to give it a try. I shared it with several people after sending it and got some positive feedback. However, I received an email this morning letting me know that my submission was not chosen this year, which I am OK with. Like I previously mentioned, I had never written a devotion before, but wanted to give it a try. There is always next year and, in the meantime, I can’t use this time to practice writing more and hopefully have a few more that I can submit next year.

I will instruct you and teach you in the way you should go; I will counsel you with my loving eye on you.

Psalm 32:8 NIV

If I’m being honest, I’m directionally challenged. I’m not the best at giving directions and I often need to refer to the GPS on my phone to find out where I’m going, However, on the rare occasion that I’m not paying attention or I’m distracted while driving, I still end up getting lost. Which happened to me several years ago.

I was looking for a park that is located several miles away from my house. I tried following the signs but somehow missed the one I needed and took a wrong turn. I ended up on this long and windy road with lots of twists, turns, curves, and no place to pull over.

I stopped once to let someone pass me, but I didn’t check the location on my phone and ended up going even farther than I had intended.

I started freaking out because the road I was on took me several miles from where I wanted to be. I tried calming myself down and stayed on the main road. It wasn’t much longer that it led me to a familiar place, and I was finally able to turn myself around and go back home.  

Once I realized where I was I started laughing and, in that moment, I could almost hear the lord whispering “this is what happens when you don’t use the resources available to you or you trust your own instincts to lead the way. When that happens, you miss the signs in front of you and end up way off course.”

I love today’s verse in Psalm 32:8 that says, “I will instruct you and teach you in the way you should go; I will counsel you with my loving eye on you.”

The bible is often quoted as being “Basic Instructions Before Leaving Earth”. And much like a physical map that helps us to know where we are going and how the get there, the bible is our spiritual map to get us from our point of salvation to becoming more like Jesus and be his physical representation while here on earth.

The bible also keeps us from stumbling over roadblocks and safe on the straight and narrow path. But if we don’t make use of the resources readily available to us, like prayer and bible study, we won’t know which way we should be going or if the path we are on will lead us in the wrong direction.

Unfortunately, I don’t always make use of those resources and end up on the wrong road several miles from where I want to be. All because I decided to go my own way.

But no matter how far you or I get off course, we can always pray out to God and through his holy spirit, he is more than willing and able to reroute us back to where we need to be. All we need to do is trust that his ways are far better than ours.