It’s the beginning of the school year, summer is over the race is on. This time of year it pays to seek God’s direction in how He wants us to confront the challenges that lie ahead. My guest, Denise Loock, always a favorite for her practical, yet insightful wisdom, is a great way get the right perspective.
2MefromHim Devotional
Trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding. In all your ways acknowledge him, and he will make your paths straight. Proverbs 3:5-6
One night my husband and I were sitting with our next-door neighbors on their patio. We had recently moved into the neighborhood, and they had invited us over to get better acquainted.
Our cat, Ginger, decided to join us when he heard our voices. As he approached, he couldn’t see the neighbors’ two dogs. They sat inside the house, their noses pressed against the sliding glass doors that opened onto the patio.
The moment Ginger strolled into the dogs’ line of vision, they began to bark. Ginger immediately stopped, hissed, and glared at them. Then he looked over to me as if to say, “What are we doing here?” Apparently, he detected that I was neither afraid of the dogs nor uncomfortable in their presence, so he strolled over to me instead of retreating to the safety of our yard. He didn’t look at the dogs again. For the next hour, Ginger lay calmly beside me even though the dogs barked when they caught sight of him.
Ginger knew me and trusted me; therefore, he looked to me for direction in an unfamiliar and potentially dangerous situation. The English word acknowledge* used in Proverbs 3:6 originally meant “to look to a superior for direction”—specifically to seek the guidance of someone a person knew intimately and trusted completely.
God asks us to trust Him as Ginger trusted me. Moving to a new state had forced my husband and me to look to God for direction in numerous situations. On many days, I felt like Ginger must have felt: Are you sure, God, that this is where we are supposed to be and what we’re supposed to be doing?
God assures us that we can always depend on His direction. The phrase “straight paths” doesn’t refer to the unobstructed view provided by a long, straight road. It means that when we reach the end of the path, we’ll see that it was the best route to take (see Proverbs 3:7-18).
No matter where God’s path leads, our job is to focus on Him and to ignore the “dogs” that seem threatening. We can relax as long as our Savior is near. His presence is the guarantee that no “dogs” will devour us.
By Denise Loock
Denise Kelso Loock is a former English teacher, Bible teacher, speaker, writer, and editor. Her work has appeared in a variety of well-known devotional publications. She is the founder and writer at http://digdeeperdevotions.com/.
A collection of Denise’s devotions, Open Your Hymnal: Devotions That Harmonize Scripture With Song, was released by Lighthouse Publishing of the Carolinas in 2010. To read more about the book or to order it, click here. A second volume of hymn devotions, Open Your Hymnal Again, was released June 2012. To read more about it, click here: Open Your Hymnal Again.
Denise taught a weekly women’s Bible study at the Montgomery Evangelical Free Church in Belle Mead, NJ, for 15 years. Over the last 5 years, she developed and taught her own Bible study curriculum: The Life of Joseph, The Life of Moses, and The Life of Joshua, and the books of 1 Samuel and 2 Samuel. Denise is currently teaching a Bible Study on Ruth at Long’s Chapel, in Waynesville, NC.
She lives in Western North Carolina with her husband and their cat, Ginger. They have two grown children.
Connect with Denise:
Website: www.digdeeperdevotions.com
http://www.journeychristiannews.com/wordpress/
http://www.lightningeditingservices.com/
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/EditorDeniseLoock?fref=ts
Twitter: https://twitter.com/DLoock
Open Your Hymnal: http://www.amazon.com/Open-Hymnal-Devotions-Harmonize-Scripture/dp/0982206577/
Open Your Hymnal Again: http://www.amazon.com/Open-Your-Hymnal-Again-Devotions/dp/0984765573/
Just what I needed to start my day and my week. Thank you Denise for this encouraging word.:-)
if we would just only trust God 😀