Isaiah 48: 17 – 18 (ESV)
Thus says the Lord, your Redeemer, the Holy One of Israel: “I am the Lord your God, who teaches you to profit, who leads you in the way you should go. Oh that you had paid attention to my commandments! Then your peace would have been like a river and your righteousness like the waves of the sea.
Explanation:
Have you ever been lost? I mean really lost. There was a day when GPS and Mapquest was not a thing. For me, getting lost at some point when traveling was a fairly common occurrence. Once my wife and I got lost on our way home from a school event. We somehow ended up on a road with a very alarming name, something along the lines of “Deep Knife” road. I remember very vividly looking at my wife and saying, “Let’s get off this road as fast as possible!”
When you got lost, as we were that day, the only options at the time were stopping to ask for directions from someone who was hopefully more familiar with the area than you are, or pulling out the ginormous paper map that was stuffed in your glove box. I can’t quite remember how we found our way home that day, but since I am here writing this devotional, we must have figured it out.
Some of the same principles apply when we find ourselves spiritually lost. As we have discovered so far through the Naive sermon series, we may even be lost and not be aware of it. So, the question that we must ask is, “what must I do when I am lost or where do I look to determine if I am going in the right direction?”
Let me start by saying it is not that warm fuzzy feeling you get in your stomach or heart that is going to give you the best direction. In fact, sometimes our feelings and emotions can be very little help in determining how to live a life that is honoring God.
Our best life comes when we listen to God’s voice. Two ways we can hear His voice is through His Word, the Bible, and through His Holy Spirit. Like the passage tells us, when we are profoundly seeking His voice through these two things, we can find ourselves with peace like a river and godliness in the way we are living. Doesn’t that sound amazing!?!
Application:
When you find yourself spiritually lost, what are your go to things to help you find direction? Have any of those go to things been more harmful than good?
Why do you think the prophet Isaiah tells his audience how much better things would have been if they/we would have paid more attention to God’s voice?
How have you found God’s voice being different than your own emotional voice?
What can you do from this day forward to pay closer attention to the voice of God?
Devo Plus:
What is something that God is speaking to you today? What would it look like to follow His voice today?
Prayer:
Holy Spirit, I take a moment now to just pause. I desire to hear Your voice. I know it is peace and power to my life and I recognize how much I need You. Please forgive me for the times I did not seek Your voice and listened to some other directions beside Your own. Today I want to start to honor You more by seeking Your leading