Your Daily Devotional for October 22, 2007

 

October 22,  2007

 

 

When We Wander

by Dr. Paul Chappell

 

 

"And he took six hundred chosen chariots, and all the chariots of Egypt, and captains over every one of them. And the LORD hardened the heart of Pharaoh king of Egypt, and he pursued after the children of Israel: and the children of Israel went out with an high hand. But the Egyptians pursued after them, all the horses and chariots of Pharaoh, and his horsemen, and his army, and overtook them encamping by the sea, beside Pihahiroth, before Baalzephon."

 

Exodus 14:7-9

 

 

Golf immortal Arnold Palmer once recalled a lesson about overconfidence: "It was the final hole of the 1961 Masters tournament, and I had a one-stroke lead and had just hit a very satisfying tee shot. I felt I was in pretty good shape. As I approached my ball, I saw an old friend standing at the edge of the gallery. He motioned me over, stuck out his hand and said, 'Congratulations.' I took his hand and shook it, but as soon as I did, I knew I had lost my focus.

On my next two shots, I hit the ball into a sand trap, then put it over the edge of the green. I missed a putt and lost the Masters. You don't forget a mistake like that; you just learn from it and become determined that you will never do that again. I haven't in the 30 years since."

Sometimes in life we can lose our focus. We can become distracted by all the things around us that we fail to stay on the path God wants us to follow. Over the past two days we have seen how when Moses was weak, God strengthened him. When Moses wondered, God gave Him a miracle. Today, we will see that even when Moses wandered, God gave him a path to follow.

 

As we see in our verses today, Moses had just led the children of Israel out of bondage in Egypt. I'm sure there was much singing and praising God as they had just seen Him perform many miracles and had delivered them from slavery. But as the Israelites approached the Red Sea, they faced their first time of trial.

 

With the Red Sea in front of them and the Egyptian army behind them, the Israelites soon began to wander. They forgot the great blessings God had performed for them in Egypt and they forgot the miraculous way God had released them from bondage. All they could see was an impossible situation and they began to doubt God.

 

This can happen in our lives if we are not careful. We could have just experienced a great victory in our lives and had seen God work in a mighty way, yet one small problem can distract our focus and cause us to wander. We must be careful that we keep our focus on God when problems come into our lives. We must set our eyes on Him and follow His path for our lives.

 

God's path always involves going forward. Many times the devil will try to get us to look back to our past or around to others near us. We must not look back or around but set our eyes on Christ. As we are focused on Him and are moving forward on our path, He will help us stay on track and not wander from His will.

 

Had Moses and the Israelites not trusted God and continued to move forward, they would not have been able to see God's blessings. You don't want to miss God's blessings because you wandered away from His path for your life.

 

Are you on the right path? Or have you lost focus and wandered from God? Make sure you are focused on God and His will for your life. Let Him lead and guide you and you won't miss the awesome blessings He has in store for you!

 

 

Daily Bible Reading

Isaiah 65-66 • 1 Timothy 2

 

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