We like to figure things out for ourselves, don’t we? No one tells me what to do! I “do it my way” (feel free to start singing Frank Sinatra!) Left to our own devices, we can often do it our way and be alright. There’s iPhones and microwave ovens and soon self-driving cars! Then there is the more personal like how we chose our college, how should we handle a particular relationship and choosing the perfect spouse for us if you’re married – I would hope you all would say you chose wisely in that respect! And left to our devices, we can get into some pretty big messes, too, can’t we? We get lost in wars, and find ourselves in the wrong place at the wrong time, and sometimes there is divorce. Yes, we humans can really muck things up when we try to do things our way all the time because we aren’t always on the right path. Too often our wisdom isn’t so wise. We get lost, lose our way. We need a better way, a smarter way to live. It’s like we need a GPS to get us where we need to go, some sort of guidance system that gets us to the place where God wants us to be to do the things God wants us to be doing. We need God GPS. God’s Guidance Provider System.
Abraham wanted a wife for his son, Isaac. Not just any woman, but specifically a woman from his own country. He sent a faithful servant to find this special woman for Isaac. This request didn’t come out of the blue. Abraham understood, from his previous encounters with the Lord, this was what God wanted him to do for his son.
Multiple times in Abraham’s life he heard God’s direction. He listened carefully and then God took him where he needed to go. God told him to go off into a foreign land, so Abraham followed where God led him. God told him he would have children in his old age, and Abraham watched God make it happen. God asked Abraham to sacrifice his son Isaac and Abraham didn’t question it – he went up to the mountain prepared to do it, but Isaac was spared. There was no doubt about Abraham’s faithfulness to God. Abraham knew God intimately, and God knew Abraham intimately. God’s GPS requires an intimate relationship with God.
An intimate relationship requires time spent together. You know, like married people. For those of you who are married, think back to when you met your spouse. You know him or her, but not that well. You then thought about her or him all the time and wanted to spend all your time with them, getting to know every little thing about them. Then, hopefully after you’re married, you got to know them even more intimately, if you know what I mean (wink, wink). After a while, you finish each other’s sentences because you knew exactly how they think, how they speak and what they feel. That’s what God wants with each one of us –we stand so closely with the Lord that we know what God desires and wants us to do in His name. That’s the kind of relationship Abraham and God had, and the kind of relationship God wants with each one of us.
So for Abraham to use God’s GPS, he had to be in touch with God in such a way that he could knew what exactly what destination God was directing him to. God’s GPS still works that way for us. If you spend time with God, if you spend time with Jesus, you too will understand what God’s direction is for you. Your destination will become clear. While Abraham didn’t have the Bible in his day, we do. We have God’s Word available every minute of the day. Reading it, studying it and listening to where the Word says to go, we too will have a destination, a route to follow and we can be assured we are on the path that leads to life, to blessing, to peace and to love. Or even simpler, God’s GPS will direct our everyday actions including perhaps finding a spouse.
Understanding what God desired for Isaac, Abraham sends a servant off to find that woman who would become Isaac’s wife. This servant clarifies the request, making sure he understands exactly what his destination is, and what to do if he can’t find a woman willing to become Isaac’s wife. The servant trusts Abraham’s request. And then he prayed. God’s GPS requires prayer.
Even when we know the Lord intimately and have gotten that address, sometimes we have to do a double check to make sure we got it right. Make sure we plugged the right address in. After all, we are only human. Maybe we misunderstood where we are supposed to go. Maybe we somehow managed to get our own destination desire mixed in. In any case, prayer will clarify our action and ensure that we are indeed following God’s directions. Sometimes we need to recheck our God GPS to make sure we are going in the right direction. If we are lost, we can ask God to recalculate our steps so we get back on track.
Even Jesus prayed for assurance of his purpose and his destination. On the night before he died on the cross, he prayed – Lord, if you want me to do this, I will even though I may not want to do it. Christ continued to seek God’s guidance and direction, even though he completely understood it was his destination. It is OK to reconfirm so that you can trust you are on the right route.
You’ve heard the story of someone following directions on a GPS and the GPS sends them down a road that ends in a cliff? If the driver hadn’t been paying attention to where he was actually going, the car would have driven right off that cliff. The good news is, God won’t do that to you! When we find ourselves heading towards a cliff, it’s because we haven’t been paying attention to God’s GPS. Prayer pulls us back into following God’s GPS.
Like the servant, we can also pray that our journey is successful. God loves it when we hold Him to His Word! Confidence in our journey places our trust in God’s ways and not our own. Having checked the address and made sure he was following God’s GPS, he continued on his trip. When he saw Rebekah at the well, he watched as God’s GPS seemed to be working! While he trusted what his destination was, he sat back and let God complete the journey. He didn’t try to redirect, he didn’t plug in a new address; he just followed the directions and watched God act. He watched as God made his trip successful. If it hadn’t been, that would have been OK too – there was a contingency destination – no wife for Isaac.
If the servant hadn’t waited while God acted, it would be like he plugged his destination into God’s GPS then stopped looking at it and followed his own route. He would not have seen God at work. He could not have delighted in the accomplishment of God’s plan for Abraham, Isaac and Rebekah. Basically, he let God be God. God’s GPS requires patience and watchfulness.
But we don’t really want to wait, do we? Not in this give-it-to-me-now culture. We want to see results NOW, not later. Not soon. Can’t wait – not for our coffee. Not to shop for our groceries ourselves. Not to have what I ordered on Amazon this morning come to me as later than dinnertime! Waiting means we are wasting time! And we wouldn’t want that, would we?
But sometimes God takes us to our destination and then nothing seems to happen. Giving up, we move on to the next destination. We get lost again, losing sight of the goal of our journey. Or we decide that God’s destination wasn’t right, or maybe it was too hard a trip, so we tell ourselves we’ll try going our own way and see if that gets us what we want. But we know how that usually ends, right? Not so good. Sometimes we must sit at the end and wait, and watch. Trust God will finish the route. Trust that we have followed the directions correctly and accurately. Trust God to do what He says He was going to do.
God’s GPS will take us on amazing journeys. It may find you a wife, or husband, or a new job, or a new ministry. It may take you to the right words to say to a friend who is hurting. It may carry you off to another land, or it may simply take you to a place close to home where you can share Christ’s love. We don’t have to look far. We are blessed to have God’s GPS Guidance Provider System – in the life of Jesus. Jesus’ teachings is our way for abundant life. Doing the things that Jesus did guides us into sharing his love. Living a life modeled after Jesus is our GPS for our direction for daily living.
Check your GPS this morning. Which one are you following? Your own, the one that can take you to trouble, worry and stress? Or God’s, the one that always brings life? Amen.
Let’s pray:
Almighty Lord, guide us in all our ways. Direct our actions to do your will, not ours, and to live our lives as Jesus did, doing your work, loving our neighbors and giving you all the glory. Amen.
Old Testament Lesson: Genesis 24: 1-21
Now Abraham was old, well advanced in years; and the Lord had blessed Abraham in all things. Abraham said to his servant, the oldest of his house, who had charge of all that he had, ‘Put your hand under my thigh and I will make you swear by the Lord, the God of heaven and earth, that you will not get a wife for my son from the daughters of the Canaanites, among whom I live, but will go to my country and to my kindred and get a wife for my son Isaac.’ The servant said to him, ‘Perhaps the woman may not be willing to follow me to this land; must I then take your son back to the land from which you came?’ Abraham said to him, ‘See to it that you do not take my son back there. The Lord, the God of heaven, who took me from my father’s house and from the land of my birth, and who spoke to me and swore to me, “To your offspring I will give this land”, he will send his angel before you; you shall take a wife for my son from there. But if the woman is not willing to follow you, then you will be free from this oath of mine; only you must not take my son back there.’ So the servant put his hand under the thigh of Abraham his master and swore to him concerning this matter. Then the servant took ten of his master’s camels and departed, taking all kinds of choice gifts from his master; and he set out and went to Aram-naharaim, to the city of Nahor. He made the camels kneel down outside the city by the well of water; it was towards evening, the time when women go out to draw water. And he said, ‘O Lord, God of my master Abraham, please grant me success today and show steadfast love to my master Abraham. I am standing here by the spring of water, and the daughters of the townspeople are coming out to draw water. Let the girl to whom I shall say, “Please offer your jar that I may drink”, and who shall say, “Drink, and I will water your camels”—let her be the one whom you have appointed for your servant Isaac. By this I shall know that you have shown steadfast love to my master.’ Before he had finished speaking, there was Rebekah, who was born to Bethuel son of Milcah, the wife of Nahor, Abraham’s brother, coming out with her water-jar on her shoulder. The girl was very fair to look upon, a virgin whom no man had known. She went down to the spring, filled her jar, and came up. Then the servant ran to meet her and said, ‘Please let me sip a little water from your jar.’ ‘Drink, my lord,’ she said, and quickly lowered her jar upon her hand and gave him a drink. When she had finished giving him a drink, she said, ‘I will draw for your camels also, until they have finished drinking.’ So she quickly emptied her jar into the trough and ran again to the well to draw, and she drew for all his camels. The man gazed at her in silence to learn whether or not the Lord had made his journey successful.
Gospel Lesson: John 14: 12-17
Very truly, I tell you, the one who believes in me will also do the works that I do and, in fact, will do greater works than these, because I am going to the Father. I will do whatever you ask in my name, so that the Father may be glorified in the Son. If in my name you ask me for anything, I will do it.
‘If you love me, you will keep my commandments. And I will ask the Father, and he will give you another Advocate, to be with you for ever. This is the Spirit of truth, whom the world cannot receive, because it neither sees him nor knows him. You know him, because he abides with you, and he will be in you.
Meditations For Your Week
Sunday, September 17th-Saturday, September 23rd
Sunday: “Abraham was now a very old man, and the Lord had blessed him in every way.” Genesis 24:1 The Lord blesses us in every way. Take time today to thank God for your many blessings.
Monday: “O Lord, God of my master, Abraham,” he prayed. “Please give me success today, and show unfailing love to my master, Abraham.” Genesis 24: 12 Abraham’s servant took time during his task to stop and pray for success. Take time during your day to pray for success in accomplishing all that God has called you to do.
Tuesday: “Without saying a word, the man watched her closely to learn whether or not the Lord had made his journey successful.” Genesis 24: 21 The servant watched closely to see if his prayer would be answered. Reflect on the prayers that God has answered in your own life.
Wednesday: “You can ask for anything in my name, and I will do it, so that the Son can bring glory to the Father.” John 14: 13 As God answers prayers, God’s glory and goodness through Jesus Christ shines. Shine that glorious light today for all to see!
Thursday: “Yes, ask me for anything in my name, and I will do it!” John 14: 14 Jesus desires us to ask him for whatever is on our heart. Bring all your requests to Christ in prayer – the big, the small and everything in between!
Friday: “If you love me, obey my commandments.” John 14: 15 Those who love Christ follow his command to love God and love one another. Who can you share Christ’s love with today?
Saturday: “He is the Holy Spirit, who leads into all truth. The world cannot receive him, because it isn’t looking for him and doesn’t recognize him. But you know him, because he lives with you now and later will be in you.” John 14: 17 Christ promises to be with us always. Praise the Lord for God’s own Son who never leaves us alone or forgotten, but is with us and in us always. Amen!