Lighting the Way
“Your word is a lamp for my feet and a light on my path” — Psalm 119:105
If you have ever driven at night, you know how important headlights are. When you are immersed in nighttime darkness, they illuminate your path. Without them, it would be nearly impossible to safely navigate to your destination. Though today’s headlights are much more effective than the oil lanterns on early automobiles, they are still no replacement for daylight. Most of your surroundings are still shrouded in darkness, leaving you to focus solely on what is directly in front of you. But by focusing on what you can see and moving forward one moment at a time, you are able to navigate through the darkness to your destination.
Our lives are a lot like a nighttime road trip. We are on a long and winding road, most of which we cannot see. We have mere guesses as to what lies up ahead, and only memories of what lies behind us. At any given moment, we can only see what is directly in front of us. And even then, we can only see that much if our “headlights” are on. How much more confusing and perilous of a journey life becomes when we drive around with nothing to light our way.
Fortunately for us, the engineer of life — God — has given us a user manual — the Bible — that teaches us how to light the path in front of us. He instructs us to daily put our trust in Him and ask Him to light our way.
Give us today our daily bread. — Matthew 6:11
Trust in the Lord with all your heart, and do not lean on your own understanding. — Proverbs 3:5
God knows the road that we are traveling on, and He has a plan for our lives. He uses prayer and scripture to both reveal things to us (light our path) and turn our attention towards the light so that we can focus on what has been illuminated in front of us.
“You light a lamp for me. The Lord, my God, lights up my darkness” — Psalm 18:28
It is important, though, that we do not get distracted looking around or looking too far ahead. Neither of those things will be well lit, and will distract us from where our attention needs to be.
Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own. — Matthew 6:34
By taking our attention away from worldly distractions and focusing on Christ — through daily prayer and study of scripture — He will light the way for us one step at a time. Over the course of a lifetime, we will have navigated through the darkness to our life’s destination.
Do not conform to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God’s will is — his good, pleasing and perfect will. — Romans 12:2
