Step By Step

Your word is a lamp to my feet and a light to my path.

Psalm 119:105

And the Lord will guide you continually and satisfy your desire in scorched places and make your bones strong;and you shall be like a watered garden, like a spring of water, whose waters do not fail.

Isaiah 58:11

The steps of a man are established by the Lord,when he delights in his way;Psalm 37:23

Have you ever thought about moment by moment living with God? For me and my family, the last 4 four weeks have been some of the worst we've ever experienced.

Trials have a way of making me run to the Lord quickly, but these recent struggles have made me think again about how I trust the Lord for day-to-day living.

The scriptures are full of verses that tell us to trust in the Lord, walk in His ways, follow Him and obey Him, etc. So often we take this to mean that we are to pray and ask God what He wants us to do and then get on with our business forgetting Him until the next little circumstance requires His assistance. At least that seems to be the way I live my life most of the time.

However, in the last few weeks, God has been taking us us through situations where praying and running on ahead isn't an option. And if I was truthful with myself, running on ahead of God is never an option.

One day during a week or so ago while I was teaching a piano lesson, the phone rang. Usually I don't answer the phone during lessons, but for some reason, I felt it was necessary. I picked up the phone. I listened to the man on the other end of the line. Could I be there as soon as possible? He had important news for me. I needed to be there in person. I hung up the phone and my entire body began to shake. I knew the information he had for me was going to change my life, and I wasn't sure I wanted to hear what he had to say. I finished the piano lesson and asked the mother of my student if she would pray for me.

As soon as I could get my girls together, we jumped into the car and headed to town to find out what I didn't want to hear. I prayed. When I sat there and listened to the man, I prayed. His information stunned me, as I knew it would. I prayed. "Lord, what do I say?" We talked. I prayed. "Lord, what do I do now?" I left his office. I prayed, "What is my next step to be?" I felt like I was walking through muck, not knowing the way out or which way to walk. The next hours, and even the next day were no better. It was then that I woke up to the fact that I couldn't face life, not even one moment of my life without the Lord's help. And He was right there with me while I went through it.

Psalm 119:105 says that God's Word is "a lamp unto my feet and a light unto my path." I read once that in Old Testament times when people traveled at night, they attached small lights to their shoes to light the path in front of them. It is interesting to me that God does not tell us He will light the entire path in front of us. Rather, He tells us to walk with Him, and He will show us the next step.

When I lived in France, I did a lot of cross country skiing. One of the nicer places I frequented was "Col de Saisies", now famous because the cross country events during the Winter Olympic games in 1992 where held there. On this particular occasion, we were up near the top of mountain, and it began to snow. Though the trails were well marked, the snow was coming down so hard that the tracks left by the skiers in front of us where covered almost as quickly as they were made. We were in a cloud and literally engulfed in snow. The only way to find our way down to the ski lodge was to stay close to the skiers in front of us. If we lagged behind or left the trail, we would have been trapped up there.

I have often thought of that day and how frightened I was that I might lose sight of the skiers in front of me and be buried in the snow. Sometimes that is how I think God leads me. He's out there in front, making the path plain, but I'm stuck back there hoping against hope that He won't get too far ahead of me.

That is not how God leads us. He lights our path, because He is right there with us. He's not shining the light back on us and telling us to hurry up, nor is He behind us giving us a push into the dark. He's right there with us in much the same way Jesus walked with the disciples on the road to Emmaus. He walks with us and communes with us and tells us which way to go as we are walking along fellowshipping with Him.

This reminds me of a song by Rich Mullins that we used to sing sometimes:

Oh God, You are my God And I will ever praise You

I will seek You in the morning

And I will learn to walk in Your ways

And step by step You'll lead me

And I will follow You all of my days