Guidance - Introduction!

It was just this week that my wife and I received an e-mail, from a very dear friend that, while not using the word, was all about the subject of guidance - "What should I do next?"; "Did I make a mistake in what I have just done?" Now I should make clear, at the outset, that our friend and her husband are disciples of Jesus, and that her concern is that they may have stepped outside God's will for their lives, and that they want to be back in it! However, I suspect that we all seek guidance in the different situations that we experience in our lives.

Many things make it difficult to believe in the guidance of Almighty God. When astronomers inform us that the nearest star (other than our own Sun!) is approximately 4.25 Light Years away; and when we realise that a Light Year is the distance that light travels in an earth-year (travelling at more than 186,000 miles per second!); and that that computes to more than 25,300,000,000,000 miles: and when we compare this with the 70 - 100 years of life that some humans attain: it seems impossible to assert that such creatures as ourselves can possibly be under the care of, and even have fellowship with, the Being Who created all of this (if you accept that it is all just the result of random events, then I would respectfully suggest that you need to expand your horizons!).

We may consider the words of the psalmist:

"When I look at Thy heavens, the work of Thy fingers,
    the moon and the stars which Thou hast established;
4 what is man that Thou art mindful of him,
    and the son of man that Thou dost care for him?" (Ps.8:3-4)

In the bewildering vastness of the known universe, and as we peer down the long vista of time, it does seem to be pitifully naïve to ask: "Does God care for me?"; "Is He interested in my doings?"; "Will He direct me in every detail of my life?"; "Does He long for the worship, and adoration, of my heart?" 

When such questions are asked, the answer seems to be, to many people, a resounding "No! God, if there is a God, isn't interested and, if that is the case, we can't expect any guidance."

However, there is another side to this! Neither the vastness of the universe, nor the apparent endlessness of time, have the final word. A baby, surely, is more than a mountain, even although it is nothing by comparison of size, for even a baby can love. A man is more than a star, for a man can think. And even although a tortoise may live for well over 100 years, a child is much, much more.

Astronomy, and other sciences, may conspire to prove the utter insignificance of mankind - but man is still the astronomer, and the scientist in other disciplines! More than that, we are made in the image of Almighty God - although not in any physical sense. Even more, it is only a human being who may be born again of the Holy Spirit, and become the very child of God!

So I believe that, certainly for the disciple of Jesus, God's guidance can be very real indeed. And even the unbeliever, who doesn't seek that guidance, may receive it! Cyrus, the Persian king of the 6th century B.C., was a worshipper of idols, but the Hebrew Scriptures assert that he was a chosen instrument of the living God. The prophet Isaiah speaks these words concerning the Persian king: " ‘He is my shepherd, and he shall fulfil all my purpose’; saying of Jerusalem. ‘She shall be built,’  and of the temple, ‘Your foundation shall be laid.’” (44: 28), and "Thus says YHWH to His anointed, to Cyrus, ... ... 'I will go before you and level the mountains, I will break in pieces the doors of bronze and cut asunder the bars of iron, I will give you the treasures of darkness and the hoards in secret places, that you may know that it is I, YHWH, the God of Israel, Who call you by your name. For the sake of My servant Jacob, and Israel My chosen, I call you by your name, I surname you, 'though you do not know Me.'" (45: 2-4, emphases added).

Unaware of it though he was, this great conqueror was being guided, and girded, by the Divine hand. Behind all of his conquests and empire building, the purposes of YHWH could be found.

However, it is in the context of disciples of Jesus that I propose to spend the next few posts looking at the subject of guidance. Not that the posts will be, in any way, exclusive, and I trust that those who would not claim to be His disciples will still read, and consider what they read!

Until next week!