Mapping out the journey

THIS IS THE ACTUAL COMPASS HANGING
FROM MY REAR VIEW MIRROR ON THE
DASH OF MY CAR!

I joke all the time that I am so directionally dysfunctional that when I was a kid and we played blind mans bluff, they didn't need to blind fold me, just spin me around!

My husband installed a compass on the dash of my car.

My son got me a GPS for Christmas one year.

Mapquest is always "on" on my computer, and the navigation on my phone never rests.

But I still get lost.  It is actually very irritating to me.  I am intelligent.  I know the "rules" - face south and east is to your left. ( I think)  When I am going somewhere I can follow directions easily enough and can even read a map.  I've driven across the entire United States from coast to coast more than once.

The trouble starts when I take a wrong turn.

I have no inner sense of navigation.  I lose sense of left or right, north or south.  I'm sure I have an inner compass just like everyone else, it's just that mine has no needle!

That's when panic sets in and I turn in so many wrong directions I become hopelessly muddled and truly lost.

I know a lot of people who feel that way about spiritual matters. 

Panic sets in deep in their hearts because they've taken a wrong turn or two and now they think they are hopelessly lost.

There is always a way back to the right path to get you where you want to go. 

If we are willing to ask directions, we discover there is hope!  Lost becomes a thing of the past immediately, even if the journey to where we want to go is a far way off, when we are finally traveling on the right road in the right direction.

Dare to ask directions from One who has mapped out your journey beforehand, Who loves you and has made provision for you.  Through Christ, we are not simply "saved" sometime in the future - we have a hope and joy right now!  We have purpose right now!  We have blessings right now!  We are no longer lost, and we are definitely not hopeless.

Wrong turns are forgiven and we are given everything we need to set a course for our journey that leads to where we really want to go; HEAVEN.

Ephesians 1:1Paul, an apostle of Jesus Christ by the will of God, to the saints which are at Ephesus, and to the faithful in Christ Jesus:

2 Grace be to you, and peace, from God our Father, and from the Lord Jesus Christ.

3 Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who hath blessed us with all spiritual blessings in heavenly places in Christ:

4 According as he hath chosen us in him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and without blame before him in love:

5 Having predestinated us unto the adoption of children by Jesus Christ to himself, according to the good pleasure of his will,

6 To the praise of the glory of his grace, wherein he hath made us accepted in the beloved.

7 In whom we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of sins, according to the riches of his grace;

8 Wherein he hath abounded toward us in all wisdom and prudence;

9 Having made known unto us the mystery of his will, according to his good pleasure which he hath purposed in himself:

10 That in the dispensation of the fulness of times he might gather together in one all things in Christ, both which are in heaven, and which are on earth; even in him:

11 In whom also we have obtained an inheritance, being predestinated according to the purpose of him who worketh all things after the counsel of his own will:

12 That we should be to the praise of his glory, who first trusted in Christ.

13 In whom ye also trusted, after that ye heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation: in whom also after that ye believed, ye were sealed with that holy Spirit of promise,

14 Which is the earnest of our inheritance until the redemption of the purchased possession, unto the praise of his glory.