In times of crisis large segments of the population look for answers and there is often an expressed desire, an expectation, that governments will provide that leadership. While I appreciate what our elected officials and bureaucracies do, I think there is a better place to look. I often turn to these two verses from Psalm 25. They exemplify something I read recently in a book by Scott Rodin, “It is not whom you are leading but who is leading you that will determine your legacy.” Thus, I regularly join David and turn these verses into a prayer.
4 Show me Your ways, O LORD; Teach me Your paths. 5 Lead me in Your truth and teach me, For You are the God of my salvation; On You I wait all the day. Psalm 25:4-5 (NKJV)
I recognize the need to walk in the path He has prepared for me. Though I may stumble and wander, my desire is to be on the path He has laid out. Notice both ‘ways’ and ‘paths’ are plural. This is akin to what it says elsewhere in Psalms.
4 There is a river whose streams shall make glad the city of God, The holy place of the tabernacle of the Most High. Psalm 46:4 (NKJV)
The point is not the idea that ‘all roads lead to Rome.’ Rather it is the idea that each of us have a different calling, but we all have the same purpose. Our purpose is to walk in His ways and flow into the river of His purpose. Our gifts and callings have been given by Him to glorify His name. This means seeking to walk in the paths He has prepared for us and looking to Him in expectation that He will lead us on the right path.
The idea that we can expect Him to lead us in the right way is inherent in the Hebrew word which is translated as ‘wait’ in verse 25. The word carries the sense of hope and expectation and being bound up with Him, the opposite of passivity. We are not waiting in the sense of hoping something will happen. The call is to wait the way David expressed it elsewhere. This is the verse I think of when I think of ‘waiting on the Lord’ because it encapsulates in one verse the idea of scriptural waiting, a confident expectancy.
3 My voice You shall hear in the morning, O LORD; In the morning I will direct it to You, And I will look up. Psalm 5:3 (NKJV)
So, in this season we need leadership. Let’s look for it in the right place and leave a legacy that points others to Jesus.
Hear hear!
Thanks John.
I love to come before Him in the morning to get direction for the day. I trust that what I am hearing is his leading and I have confidence in going that way.
Likewise. I have always found in my walk with Him that morning is the best time to meet with Him to set the course for the day. Other times are simply not the same.