"How Then Can Man Understand his Way?"

I know my Abba gave me a wonderful gift yesterday and the thing that delights me even more, is His Spirit helped me to recognize it as a gift right away!

In Jesus Calling, there was a scripture reference that became instantly dear to me...Proverbs 20:24:

"Man's steps are ordained by the LORD,

How then can man understand his way?" (NASB)

At first glance, I thought, "Well, of course I can't understand His way!" But then He caused my eyes to fall upon that word again and I realized it was not His...but his. In Bible lingo, this indicates it is not referring to God. While it is true that I can't possibly understand His way (capital letter always being indicative of God) and I've accepted this for many years, I do still attempt to figure Him out far too often. No...Solomon (the author of Proverbs) is emphasizing that there is no conceivable possibility that I can ever understand his way. My way. 

My way...the path I am on for this journey called life...I cannot begin to understand it. I certainly try. I analyze everything to death. There is no way I can italicize, emphasize, bold or underscore enough just how much energy I waste trying to figure out which "way" I should go.

And even though sometimes I think I have it all figured out...like this morning when I'm pulling into a parking lot to start a new part-time weekend job...when I've spent the evening and morning planning for every possibility and covering all the bases for my kids to be home for a long day all by themselves...yep, you guessed it...I happen to be one of five people sent home because they don't need me today. And, they probably won't for a few more weeks at best.

So there you have it...my way. The way I think I'm headed...might not be His way after all. Even when I resign myself to the fact that I'm willing to make the best of what by worldly standards seems to be the right choice for our family...He steps in...gives me a nudge and gets me back on His ordained path. To top it all off He sent us a love note in the form of an unexpected blessing...just in case I was wondering if this morning's events had been "my way" or not.

While it pains my nature to admit it...I absolutely cannot begin to figure out where He is taking me. I'll probably still waste precious energy trying to determine what's ahead. My hope and my prayer is that this proverb becomes embedded in my soul.

As a Jesus follower, God has ordained my steps. The only thing I need to understand is that this life should be lived His way!

Amen!