The Lord will guide you always; He will satisfy your needs in a sun-scorched land and will strengthen your frame. You will be like a well-watered garden, like a spring whose waters never fail.
Isaiah 58:11 NIV
In the middle of a chapter which is all about cause and consequence, “if” leading to “then”, this verse stands out as a promise. A gracious promise, a ‘given’ without any requirement on our part.
And it is true — there are countless stories told about how, looking back, God’s providential guidance was working in someone’s life. They didn’t have any real and personal faith (it often comes later) and they don’t remember praying. Yet the signposts appeared for them.
There is much more guidance going on, than we ever give thanks for.
But it starts with the Lord. The whole premise of what is promised is that the Lord does the guiding and the refreshing. This is His hand in our lives, not fate or fortune, not chaos or chance. And as we recognise that He is both ‘for us’, and ‘there for us’, we pause our busy lives and turn to Him. And find Him.
The good news is that the Bible here is saying that God is constantly guiding us and enabling us to grow. And the even more good news that it implies, is that in the moment we praise Him for who He is and thank Him for being there for us, we can ask for more. We can be guided more certainly — because we are now seeking, and listening, and expecting, and discovering that there is a partnership.
It will not be long into this journey of discovery that we encounter Jesus. Who is He? God’s unique Son who took on the flesh and blood form of living like one of us but doing it perfectly and lovingly. We may explore the Bible and read that Jesus is the perfect representation of God — as He taught Himself, “Anyone who has seen Me has seen the Father”.
Jesus holds out an offer to us, not just guidance in this confusing life with all its burdens and difficulties. He offers to take that weight away, saying that His burden — what He requires from us — is not a heavy religious framework but a relationship that is light and comfortable by comparison.
By believing and trusting Him, our sense of divine guidance becomes a new start into life with a spiritual dimension — a life that goes on and on and grows in depth of experience.
It starts by receiving the simple truth the Bible gives us: “The Lord will guide you always…”
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For reference:
Isaiah 58
John 14:9 and context
Matthew 11:27-29
Hebrews 1:3
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