“How can a young person live a clean life? By carefully reading the map of your Word. I’m single-minded in my pursuit of you; don’t let me miss the road signs you’ve posted.“ Psalm 119:9-10 (The Message)
As Methodist pastors who will move several times in the course of our careers my wife and I thought it a good investment to outfit our cars with GPS units. All we had to do was punch in an address and let it direct us to our destination. They worked pretty well for a couple of years and then they started getting things wrong. It tried to tell us to get off the highway onto off ramps that were no longer there or to take us the long way around when we knew there was a shorter way.
It didn’t take me long to figure out that the maps the GPS unit used were out of date. Apparently I was supposed to hook the units up to a computer every once in a while to get the most up to date information. Helps to read the instruction manual I guess.
In Psalm 119 God’s Word is compared to a road map that can help direct our lives. A lot of people find it hard to believe that a book written thousands of years in the past can have any relevance to life today. Even our GPS units have to get updated. The difference is God’s Word is alive, God’s Word is Jesus, and Jesus is always relevant.
The difference is humanity hasn’t changed nearly as much as we like to think it has. We still pursue the same basic desires, and we still look for fulfillment in all the wrong places. The words of Jesus are timeless and will always hold the key to freeing us from our baser proclivities and opening up the opportunity for us to walk in newness of life with him.
Our roads change a frequently, humanity doesn’t. So the Word of God, as it directs humanity on the road of life, will never lead you astray. As long as you read it and pursue it and allow it to lead you.
Watching for the road signs,
Pastor Mike