Devotion: JANUARY 9

Led By Even the Root of a Tree

Scripture: Isaiah 49:10

How important it is and how blessed we are to follow God’s guidance for our lives. You may remember the story of Peter Marshall who was the Chaplain of the Senate some years ago. His life story was made into the film A Man Called Peter.   

If you recall, as a young man in Scotland, not really knowing what God would have him to do, he was walking across a moor one day and there was dense fog. He could hardly see the ground at all, and then suddenly he tripped and fell flat on his face. When he started to push himself up, one of his hands went right over the edge of the cliff that he would have been looking down into if he could have seen. Then as the fog cleared a little bit he saw, indeed, that he was right on the very edge of a deep precipice that would most certainly have cost him his life if he hadn’t tripped over the root of a tree.

He was convinced that in this circumstance God was guiding him and later brought him to America, to Columbia Seminary, where I also studied some time later. Finally, Peter Marshall felt led to the high position of the Chaplaincy of the Senate of the United States. 

The Lord guides the steps of the righteous—in this case, it was literally so. We need not fear the future, but only entrust our future to Him.

Dear Father, give us strength for today to seek after You with our whole heart. Thank You that You are sovereign. Help us to not be like a parked car, waiting to be steered. Instead, help us to trust in Your guidance and to put it into practice…