This is the way walk in it!

We are all going somewhere with our lives. What is happening to us is always driving us in one direction or another. We never truly stand still.

Do you ever wonder if there is a way forward out of your situation?

I was chatting to some work colleagues yesterday in the kitchen. We were joking about the national lottery, one guy was saying how wonderful it would be to win it. But he was joking that he would have to give some money to his wife, his children and his dog before they would let him enjoy any!

Buying a lottery ticket is a bit like buying a ticket for a dream. But a dream that lasts only to the next draw before it is dashed. But for one pound you can have a little bit of hope. And we all need a bit of hope in our lives.

I have discovered another source of hope and it doesn't require money. For a while now I have been a follower of a way that has a hope and a reality at the end of it. It is a way that gradually changes me for the better and that lifts my spirits and let's me begin to encounter peace!

Thousands of years ago the prophet Isaiah wrote this passage "the Lord longs to be gracious to you; therefore he will rise up to show you compassion. For the LORD is a God of justice. ..... How gracious he will be when you cry for help! As soon as he hears, he will answer you. Although the Lord gives you the bread of adversity and the water of affliction, your teachers will be hidden no more; with your own eyes you will see them. Whether you turn to the right or to the left, your ears will hear a voice behind you, saying, “This is the way; walk in it.”

This gives us the impression that God is there to be interacted with. In my experience that is certainly true although we need to be listening in order to catch the Holy Spirit speaking into our lives.

God can sometimes guide us

• through the words of a stranger or friend
• through the words in the bible
• through life circumstances
• through the world he created

and sometimes he wants our response!

Another passage, a personal favourite of mine is from Jeremiah "This is what the LORD says: “Stand at the crossroads and look; ask for the ancient paths, ask where the good way is, and walk in it, and you will find rest for your souls."

By following the ancient paths or ways we are following well trodden routes into the heart of God. Why go another less direct way!? Why go through the thicket and get caught in brambles when the path is there all along? I am inviting you to travel with me weekly on that way that leads to God.

Dear Lord, give us please your guidance to that which makes us whole. Send your Spirit again to our lives so that we are renewed and strengthened. Amen