October 18, 2022 – Reflections on “Life’s Journey’s Choices Indicate Destination!”

When we choose our destination when traveling, we search for the road that leads us there. Man often tries to make it easy to travel around the world. I can easily get lost with a man-made GPS. I often hear the words, “Recalculate!” from an unknown source while trying to use the GPS.

         If we believe in Jesus, He becomes our spiritual guide to an eternity with our Lord God. An amazing verse is found in John 14 that directs our path. Jesus said to him, “I am the WAY, and the TRUTH, and the LIFE. No one comes to the Father, except through me!” John 14:6.

         My daughter received a tiny globe as a gift, with a quote by Ralph Waldo Emerson on it: Life is a journey, not a destination. The more I thought about this quote, the more I realized how important the choices we make in life’s journey can change our intended destination.

         We desire assurance that we will reach our intended destination. If we choose the wrong pathway, our destination may be postponed, or we may totally lose our way. When the destination becomes of first importance, we do not wish to be deterred from our goal.

         The Old Testament is filled with the journeys when God asked people to take for His Purposes. Jonah was told to go teach about God in Nineveh. He did not want to obey, and his journey had a lay-over in the belly of a big fish for three days, he must have used for prayer time.

         Hebrews 11:8-9, By faith, Abraham obeyed when he was called to go out to a place that he was to receive as an inheritance. And he went out, not knowing where he was going. By faith, he went to live in the land of promise, as in a foreign land, living in tents with Isaac and Jacob, heirs with him of the same promise. Hebrews 11 is filled with men who lived, ‘by faith’. Moses led the grumbling Israelites from captivity in Egypt on a journey for forty years. They still searching for the inheritance promised long before to Abraham.

          Through Jesus, we now await going to the promised land–Heaven. We are given 1,440 minutes each day. How we spend that time each day tells God how much we trust in Him and want to follow Him to the promised land.    

         In this world, as we grow older, taking a journey means packing and time away from our comfort zone. However, when we understand the why… the time, we can see the urgency of our journey. Satan wants us to conform to the world. Then we pray, “Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind, that by testing you may discern what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect.” Romans 12:2.

         As we awaken to the light of day, we remember, And God said, “Let there be light,” and there was light. And God saw that the light was good. And God separated the light from the darkness. God called the light Day, and the darkness He called Night. And there was evening and there was morning, the first day. Genesis 1:3-5.

         Why did God create Light so early in the six days of creation? Have you ever considered how often Light stands for Life, for understanding, and for righteousness and faith? Night often stands for the dark side of life, a sin-filled existence, a time when we stumble.

         God wants us to choose Life and righteousness, in doing so, we have freedom. Live as people who are free, not using your freedom as a cover-up for evil, but living as servants of God. I Peter 2:16. Each time I peruse the scriptures, I find a new idea. In God, we are chosen before He laid the foundation of the world. And then I read, As each has received a gift, use it to serve one another, as good stewards of God’s varied Grace: whoever speaks, as one who speaks oracles of God; whoever serves, as one who serves by the strength that God supplies — in order that in everything, God may be glorified through Jesus Christ. To Him belong glory and dominion forever and ever. Amen. I Peter 4:11.

         Delight yourself in the Lord, and He will give you the desires of your heart. Commit your way to the Lord; trust in Him, and He will act. He will bring forth your righteousness as the light, and your justice as the noonday. Psalm 37:4-6.

         Will our journey be easy? We will encounter trials and temptations, and this is how our faith grows. God blesses those who hunger and thirst for justice, for they will be satisfied. Matthew 5:6. We will experience the sweetness of adventure when we follow our Lord on our journey.

         Indeed… then this is our promise. If then you have been raised with Christ, seek the things that are above, where Christ is, seated at the right hand of God. Set your minds on things that are above, not on things that are on earth. For you have died, and your life is hidden with Christ in God. When Christ, who is your life appears, then you also will appear with Him in glory. Colossians 3:1-4.