Loss of direction
Therefore the Lord waits to be gracious to you;
Therefore he will rise up to show mercy to you. Isaiah 30:18
Read Isaiah 30:19—26
Haven’t I been there? Where the people of Zion were? Haven’t I known what they knew? That loss of direction? The not knowing. Which way? What next? Who to trust? What, really, am I to do, really, really? It is debilitating. It takes the pleasure out of daily living. The food loses its taste, the garden its glory. Even church-going can become a dull motion, and the life of faith a trial. What is called for is a little cry to the Most Gracious One. And then to listen for his word: ‘This way. Try this way. Walk in it.’ Then it will be, Isaiah’s promise tells me, like rain for the seed in the ground, grain rich and plenty, fat grazing cattle, brooks running. Being in God’s way, having his direction is, simply, life-giving.
Dear Lord, when I lose your way and your direction it saps the life out of me. It robs me of the joy I have in you. It distorts who you really are. I am up against you as my adversary. It’s not even fun being a Christian. It is duty and frustration and all my own effort. But you want to be gracious to me. And, now that I stop from my way and wait upon you, I know that. It is not that you haven’t been speaking. Very likely you have. Very likely I’ve resisted hearing. Often that is so. Most often that’s the case. Now it is good for me to cry to you, to wait upon you for direction for my life. I know, nothing gives me quite as much vitality as becoming clear about the way ahead, and as walking in it. That is actually refreshing, and I thank you.