He Leads, We Follow
Psalms 18:36
New Living Translation - “You have made a wide path for my feet to keep them from slipping.”
Amplified version - “You enlarge the path beneath me and make my steps secure, so that my feet will not slip.”
Contemporary English version - “You clear the way for me, and now I won’t stumble.”
I don’t know about you, but when I wake up in the morning and think about God, my first thought isn’t usually that He’ll do something like this for me… meaning, make it difficult for me to miss His direction. The essence of my first thoughts are typically along the lines of, “Oh, I better do everything ‘right’ today because I don’t want things to go poorly for me!”
As if the burden of finding my way through life is all on me to figure out… AND as if God is wielding a stick in His hand, ready to beat me over the head for not being perfect.
I honestly struggle just as much as the next person to believe that the Lord is dedicated to securing my footing. There’s still a part of my flesh that entices me to think religiously about my walk with God, viewing it as a transaction of sorts where I have to somehow “pay” for His security over my life through doing everything perfectly. The devil would want myself and any child of God to think this way because this type of thinking builds a wall between ourselves and the mission, the very heart, of Jesus.
The Pharisees operated in religion, missing the real Messiah and even murdering Him because He didn’t fit into their “box.” Jesus wrecked their traditions and works-based thinking, and they closed themselves off to receiving Him as the One they had been waiting for the whole time. He showed them a way of life that required surrender to the Truth, but they couldn’t bear the thought of being led instead of leading themselves.
When will we ever accept that our understanding is incomplete?
It is only through a renewed mind (Romans 12:2), and being “continually renewed in the spirit of our minds” (Ephesians 4:23) that we will begin to witness a transformation of understanding regarding the Lord’s true love for us, His creation. Relying on our human minds alone will halt us from ever grasping the essence of “how wide, how long, how high, and how deep His love is” (Ephesians 3:18).
When we ask for His will to be done in our lives, HE is the One faithful to accomplish it. HE is the One securing our footing. It is not about us or our capabilities – Jesus already showed us this. It is about a heart yielded over to Him, combined with a willingness to act whenever His Spirit gives us the inclination. Again, we rely on Him to tell us when to act; our works do nothing for us apart from the anointing and guidance of Christ.
Find freedom in how ironically insignificant you are, and remember how significant the Holy Spirit within you truly is. Invite Him to guide your thoughts every single day, and He alone will do the work of widening the path you’re on as you simply… walk.
“The mind governed by the flesh is death, but the mind governed by the Holy Spirit is life and peace.” - Romans 8:6
