Show Me the Way Lord

Scripture: Psalm 25:4-7 (NIV)

⁴ Show me your ways, Lord,

teach me your paths.

⁵ Guide me in your truth and teach me,

for you are God my Savior,

and my hope is in you all day long.

⁶ Remember, Lord, your great mercy and love,

for they are from of old.

⁷ Do not remember the sins of my youth

and my rebellious ways;

according to your love remember me,

for you, Lord, are good.

 

Devotion:

 

            Today we consider a portion of Psalm 25. David, the psalmist, pleads for the Lord to show David the right way to walk. Trying to walk in our own ways according to our own sense of direction can lead us into real danger. When I was young my parents had a cabin in the Northwoods of Wisconsin where we as a family spent many beautiful summers. It was a wonderful way to grow up.

 

            One day when I was around ten years old I decided I was old enough to go out in a boat by myself up a little creek called Paint Creek. Paint creek was a small quiet creek that meandered through the countryside of Northern Wisconsin. It was also seldom traveled so it was quiet and peaceful place to get away from the world. (I cannot imagine what a ten-year-old had to get away from, but boy would I cherish a place like Paint Creek today.) This aloneness meant that if you took a wrong turn at one of the many splits in the creek it might be a long time before you figured it out.

 

            As you probably already guessed that I took one of the wrong turns. Fortunately, I had told my Mother where I was intending to go. When the hour got late my father, brother and cousins all took to Paint creek to find me. I was shortly found not too far astray but I learned a lesson that day. My misadventure had caused a great deal of anxiety, God, however, knew exactly where I was always. I wish I could say that I had not wandered away from God again. Alas, I am a perpetual prodigal son.

 

            I thank God that according to this selection God seeks us in His mercy and love no matter how often we are a wandering sheep. God will save us no matter where we wander, because He loves us and has vowed to be our Good and Great Shepherd. Even if our families cannot physically search for us anymore, God knows where we are physically, and spiritually and seeks to find us there. God knows where our personal Paint Creek is, and He is waiting to meet us there and guide us home.