The Hidden Pathway

Across where I lived as a kid was a long driveway that seemed to have no end. It went as far as my little eye could see and I had no idea what was at the end of that pathway, but was curious. My feeble, young mind had no idea of the outcome at the end of that path. My small imagination would conjure up scary thoughts of a big, scary house at the end of the road and would leave me in fear.

As an adult there are many pathways in my life that I can't fathom the outcome at the end of that path. I can choose to speculate, control the situation myself, worry, be anxious or freeze up in fear when I don't know which way to turn. But, when I'm afraid, I'm trusting and leaning on my own ways and the things I understand and see in front of me and I'm not trusting the path that God has laid out for me.

The Israelites were like this. After God had freed them from slavery in Egypt and they were on the run from the Egyptians pursuit they came to the Red Sea and felt trapped and saw nowhere to turn. They had no idea which path to take and could not see how God would deliver them. So, they panicked with fear and cried out to Moses and asked him why God would bring them out here to die. They could only see what they knew and understood. What they couldn't see though was a hidden path beneath the water. God would make a straight way for them, he would make a path that wasn't even there before. He would make a way. He always makes a way. Asaph wrote several years later about this, saying, "Your road led through the sea, your pathway through the mighty waters—a pathway no one knew was there!" (Psalm 77:19) None of God's people at that time could foresee that now historic event. They had no idea that a pathway would be revealed under the sea and God would deliver them.

You see, the Isrealites failed to acknowledge God and seek His way. They were leaning too much on all they could see in front of them and on their own understanding of things. Proverbs 3:5 tells us if we seek God's will in all that we do and do not lean on our own understanding that God will show us which path to take.

God declares in Isaiah 55:8-9 that His ways are not our ways and his thoughts are not our thoughts. He even goes on to say as the heavens are higher than the earth so are His way and thoughts. But, yet in our feeble human thoughts we tend to only know and trust what we can control. We often think we can give God advice and tell Him the best way to do things and tell him the direction in which we think we should go. But Paul reminds us in Romans 11:34-36, " Who can know the Lord's thoughts? Who can give Him advice? Everything comes from Him and exists by His power and is intended for HIS glory."

Guess what? It's not about me. It's not about you. It's all about bringing glory to God's name. But if we do just that....if we let our lights so shine to bring glory to his name and if we seek first his kingdom he will make sure we have everything we need. He will direct our paths if we only trust in that path that He lays out for us that we do not see, if we believe that he has good things for us at the end of life's long and weary road. Of course, you know that if we're walking by faith we do not have to see the end of that road to know that God has our best interests at heart.

David knew and trusted this when he wrote Psalm 40:5. "O LORD my God, you have performed many wonders for us. Your plans for us are too numerous to list. You have no equal. If I tried to recite all your wonderful deeds, I would never come to the end of them."

Are you waiting for God to reveal a way for you, but don't see any paths in sight? Or maybe your afraid of what's at the end of that long road ahead? You have a choice to panic and let fear take over and try to control it all yourself or you can simply wait on God to part the waters in your life to reveal his hidden path for you. One thing you can know for absolute sure is how wide, how long, how high, and how deep God's love is for you and that He can do abundantly more for us than we can even imagine (Ephesians 3:18;20).

Let God show you the path of life and you will find joy in his presence. Psalm 16:11