Guidance From Behind

Join us live for our Memorial Day Weekend Conference that begins tonight on the campus of America's KESWICK. Tonight's session will air at 7:00 PM live from our website: www.americaskeswick.org. Better yet, come and enjoy the conference meeting live at Keswick. Childcare is provided.

Guidance From Behind

"And I will lead the blind by a way they do not know, in paths they do not know I will guide them. I will make darkness into light before them and rugged places into plains." Isaiah 42:16

Every time the Colony men are together for a service, they always recite the benediction from Deuteronomy 31:8 -- "And the Lord, He it is that doth go before you; He will be with thee, He will not forsake thee; fear not, neither be dismayed." What a wonderful promise that God always goes BEFORE us.

But writer, Glynn Evans in his devotional, Daily with the King, reminds us that God is also at work BEHIND us giving his guidance:

I must get used to the idea that God is not just always in front of me, leading the way. He has promised to always guide me, but sometimes He guides me from behind. "Your ears will hear a word BEHIND you, 'This the way, walk in it.'" (Isaiah 30:21) Strange guidance, from behind!

Guidance from behind means one of two things: either there is trouble ahead and I need to be forced through it; or my resolve is getting weak and God has to use a little muscle persuasion to get me moving along the road.

God has led me with more "BEHIND GUIDANCE" than with "BEFORE GUIDANCE." When God is in front He is easily seen and I slack my trust a little. But when He is behind I have got to rely on His commands without seeing Him; therefore, I am more vulnerable to failure and mistake unless my faith is strong. My very vulnerability is the school in which God teaches my faith to be strong.

If I am trusting God, He will never let me make a wrong move. But all the same, He will allow me to suffer the anxiety of a POSSIBLE wrong move, just to keep my faith in fighting trim. That anxiety is painful, but not half as painful as reaping the results of a REAL wrong move. God carefully monitors my anxiety level and will not allow it to overflow. "I will tell the next generation that God is my God. HE will be my guide, even unto death." Psalm 48:13-14

Brothers, I am thankful this morning for His BEFORE and BEHIND guidance. How about you? -- Bill Welte is President and CEO of America's KESWICK

Digging Deeper: Proverbs 28; 2 Chronicles 4-6; John 10:24-42

Dig This Quote: Most people are brought to faith in Christ not by argument for it but by exposure to it. Samuel M. Shoemaker

Determined Digging: Level 1: Proverbs 11:19; Level 2: Psalm 91:1-4