Without A Road Map

After many months of not studying the Bible, I began started my Bible Study on the book titled ‘Experiencing God’. This is the material that I’m supposed to start with Joanne last Sunday, but I had procrastinated till tonight. History does repeat itself at times… & bad habits are tough to break out of.

What made me decide to begin this study material? Well, all these months, I have been feeling guilty about not studying the Bible for ages & it made me feel worse because I didn’t know how to start. I didn’t know what to read from the Bible & quite often what I read doesn’t seem to fit my mood & help solve my problems in life. And that was what made me stop reading the Bible for some time, coz I just couldn’t find the help that I so badly wanted to get out of my problems.

Tonight’s chapter was titled ‘Jesus is your way’. As I read through the chapter, I found it interesting that Jesus said He is the way. Jesus didn’t say He will show you the way, or He will give you a road map, or He will tell you which direction to head towards.

It’s that simple - Jesus knows the way & just wants you to follow Him a step at a time, each day at a time.

This is a concept that I found it difficult to grasp, bearing in mind all my possible worries at this point of my life. And the long-awaited answer to my mental struggles lay right before my eyes. Sorry, Matthew… no road map for you. God did give you the Bible to read as His word… but this doesn’t mean that it would spell out clearly & exactly what & how your path in life is going to be like.

Right at this moment I recalled what Pastor Edwin shared before. Then I realized that the Bible isn’t a road map or street directory. It’s not a ‘solve-it-all’ book. The Bible is God’s word to reveal Himself to us, so that we may understand Him in whatever measure of ability that He has given to us. The Bible is given to us, so that we can KNOW God!

In this chapter, the passage about God speaking to Abram (later he was called Abraham) shook me right to bewilderment. It’s from the passage of Genesis 12:1-5 that says –

The Lord had said to Abram, “Leave your country, your people & your father’s household & go to the land I will show you.”

“I will make you into a great nation & I will bless you; I will make your name great, & you will be a blessing. I will bless those who bless you, & whoever curses you I will curse; & all peoples on earth will blessed through you.”

So Abram left, as the Lord had told him; & Lot went with him. Abram was seventy-five years old when he set out from Haran. He took his wife Sarai, his nephew Lot, all the possessions they had accumulated & the people they had acquired from Haran, & they set out for the land of Canaan, & they arrived there.

Notice - God never said where Abram should go & what he was to do. There was no specific ‘What’, ‘Who’, ‘Where’, ‘When’ & ‘How’. Go where? “To the land I will show you.”

It was then that I realized that this is how it is with life on Earth. God tells us that we are to live one day at a time. There are always tasks to do each day & our responsibility is to do these tasks & do it as well as we can. We just have to trust that each day didn’t go past for nothing, for there is always the plan & will of God surrounding each of us.

It’s very surprising to realize that the memory verse of this chapter is exactly the same verse that I have on my PC desktop wallpaper! When I saw that verse in the book, I knew that it was a confirmation of God speaking to me, because I changed my earlier desktop wallpaper to this Bible verse coz I just felt that this verse would speak to me, especially since I have been using my PC very often these days. And behold! The exact verse appeared in today’s chapter!

“But seek first His kingdom & His righteousness, & all these things will be given to you as well. Therefore, do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own.” (Matthew 6:33-34)

I wondered to myself what do “these things” refer to, so I decided to look into my Bible & read verses 31-32 right above & realized that Jesus was referring to life necessities like food, clothing, drink, etc. For “…your heavenly Father knows that you need them.” (verse 32) Amen!