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“Trust and obey, for there’s no other way” might remind you of an old church hymn, but for me it also sums up my struggle with the GPS on my phone. It’s one thing to trust the GPS to navigate me to my destination, but a very different thing to actually obey its directions. When it alerts me to a traffic backup ahead that I can’t see and gives me an alternate route, I struggle to believe what the GPS is telling me and ignore the instructions. It’s only when I am stopped in traffic a few miles down the road that I find myself frustrated that I didn’t obey. That’s when I tell myself, “to be happy in GPS, is to trust and obey.”
The same is true about my relationship with Jesus. It’s one thing to say that I trust Jesus with my life, but another thing to obey him. Often I have a destination in mind. I’ve mapped out my day and proceed to go through the day as planned. But then there’s that thought or random encounter with someone that tells me to take a different route, to deviate from my plans, to express my faith in a way that makes me uncomfortable. Too often I press on as planned and later I regret that I did not obey.
The old hymn tells us: “Trust and obey, for there’s no other way. To be happy in Jesus, but to trust and obey.” The song was written more than 130 years ago by John Sammis, but it still rings true today. True happiness can only be found in Jesus Christ. In Him we find the strength to navigate the rough roads of life or to take the scenic route and discover the beauty of God’s creation. There is “no other way” in life.
“For the Lord God is a sun and shield; the Lord bestows favor and honor; no good thing does he withhold from those whose walk is blameless. Lord Almighty, blessed is the one who trusts in you.” – Psalm 84:11-12
“Who among you fears the Lord and obeys the word of his servant? Let the one who walks in the dark, who has no light, trust in the name of the Lord and rely on their God.”
⁃ Isaiah 50:10 (NIV)
You can read the lyrics of the hymn trust and obey at: https://library.timelesstruths.org/music/Trust_and_Obey/
© 2019 CGThelen
#ThrowbackThursday — This post originally published May 1, 2010.
A Global Positioning System or GPS is a great tool to help you find your way in an unknown area. But it is only as helpful as the information you put into it. If you give it the wrong starting point or destination you will be just as lost as when you began your journey.
Life is the same way. You travel into an unknown future surrounded by a lot of misinformation about your starting point and where you are going. It can be easy to get distracted from Christ and to start relying on a GPS of another type – Globally Positioning Self. When this happens we begin to focus more on selfish desires in this world instead of Christ. As Paul reminds us in Romans 8:7, “Focusing on the self is the opposite of focusing on God. Anyone completely absorbed in self ignores God, ends up thinking more about self than God. That person ignores who God is and what he is doing.” (MSG)
That’s why you need a true GPS – God’s Positioning System. When you trust Christ to direct your life, you will always know you are heading in the right direction. Even if you think you are traveling down the wrong road, you can trust that this GPS will help prevent you from becoming lost. “Point out the road I must travel, I’m all ears, all eyes before you.” (Psalm 143:8 MSG)
Like Abraham, there will be times that God will tell you to go a certain direction. “Now the Lord had said to Abram: ‘Get out of your country, from your family and from your father’s house, to a land that I will show you.’ So Abram departed as the Lord had spoken to him, and Lot went with him.” (Gen. 12:1 & 4 NKJV) Hebrews 11:8-10 tells us that Abraham traveled by faith “to an unknown place that would become his home. When he left he had no idea where he was going. By an act of faith he lived in the country promised him, lived as a stranger camping in tents.”
In the same way, we must travel by faith, following our Spiritual GPS. Our purpose becomes helping others see the correct path in life is to follow Christ. We cannot get too comfortable in this foreign land because we know this is not our true home. Like Abraham, we live as strangers in temporary homes, relying on God to guide us. “The fundamental fact of existence is that this trust in God, this faith, is the firm foundation under everything that makes life worth living. It’s our handle on what we can’t see. (Heb. 11:1 MSG)
© 2010 CGThelen
