GPS

Kansas City is a huge city. There’s Kansas City, Missouri, Kansas City, Kansas, and many sprawling suburbs surrounding both of these cities, spread over two states. So we often use our GPS to navigate this large territory.

I am surprised at how much we have come to trust and depend on the GPS app on our phone. GPS stands for Global Positioning System. Just think, there are millions of people, in millions of places on the globe, listening to directions in hundreds of different languages at any given moment. I’m not a scientist or a technical guru, so I cannot possibly understand how such a technical achievement is possible. How can satellites thousands of miles away see the position of all people? Or know the traffic patterns? Or figure out exactly how long it will take me to arrive at my destination? A few years ago, I wouldn’t have believed such a thing was feasible.

Now if I can believe a little satellite can know and see so much, even though I don’t understand it, why do I have trouble believing the Almighty God in heaven can do all that and more? He sees all. He knows all. Even our thoughts and the condition of our hearts. Psalm 139 says, “You have searched me, Lord, and you know me. You know when I sit and when I rise; you perceive my thoughts from afar. You discern my going out and my lying down; you are familiar with all my ways” (verses 1-3). The next verses elaborate on that concept. This psalm has become one of my favorites.

There’s an element of faith here. I listen to the voice of someone I don’t know coming from my phone via satellite, and I trust and follow the directions given. Is trusting God by faith a less likely process? I wish I could hear his audible voice coming through a speaker, but His voice speaks from His written word. Am I giving it my full attention? Doesn’t He give me guidance and warnings? Directions to my destination? And information about navigating along the way?

Sometimes I need to go back to the basics and recall my life verse. Proverbs 3:5-6 is my GPS. “Trust in the Lord with all your heart, and lean not on your own understanding; in all your ways acknowledge Him, and He shall direct your paths.”

How is your spiritual journey going? Are you tuned in to God’s heavenly GPS?