WHO GOES BEFORE YOU

“THE LORD YOUR GOD WHO GOES BEFORE YOU WILL HIMSELF FIGHT ON YOUR BEHALF, JUST AS HE DID FOR YOU IN EGYPT BEFORE YOUR EYES, AND IN THE WILDERNESS WHERE YOU SAW HOW THE LORD YOUR GOD CARRIED YOU, JUST AS A MAN CARRIES HIS SON, IN ALL THE WAY WHICH YOU HAVE WALKED UNTIL YOU CAME TO THIS PLACE.  BUT FOR ALL THIS, YOU DID NOT TRUST THE LORD YOUR GOD, WHO GOES BEFORE YOU ON YOUR WAY, TO SEEK OUT A PLACE FOR YOU TO ENCAMP, IN FIRE BY NIGHT AND CLOUD BY DAY, TO SHOW YOU THE WAY IN WHICH YOU SHOULD GO.”
DEUTERONOMY 1:30-32

God has an amazing plan for each of our lives!  We are simply to walk in it, trusting by faith. No fear.  No doubts.   He goes before us and turns to see if we are following in His footsteps.  How many of us are off the beaten path, wandering around and lost in the dark?  Actually, every one of us at some point or another: “All of us like sheep have gone astray, each of us has turned to his own way; but the Lord has caused the iniquity of us all to fall on Him.” (Isaiah 53:6).

 Which is best: His way or our own way?  When you allow Him to lead the way, you can see from the verses above these blessings:

·         He will be in the midst of our lives.

·         He will carry us through hardships.

·         He will love us as His own sons.

·         He will provide for us when we are in the wilderness.

·         He will fight for us.

·         He will encamp with us.

·         He will show us the way we should go.

·         He will allow us to see His goodness in our lives.

Lack of faith in God causes us to go our own way, thinking we know best. Sometimes we simply run ahead of Him, but there are others in the Bible who have purposely cast Him behind their backs. Results from doing so are disobedience and rebellion (Nehemiah 9:26), hating the discipline of the Lord (Psalm 50:17), and calamity being brought into our lives. (I Kings 14:9-10)   

 There is a cure for all of this. “Trust in the Lord with all your heart, and do not lean on your own understanding.  In all your ways acknowledge Him, and He will make your paths straight.” 

(Proverbs 3: 5-6)  He does not say the path will be easy.  Any mountain climber or serious hiker will tell you that the trail you choose or the peak you climb is rough, filled with twists and turns, exhausting, and seemingly endless.  But the victory at the end is worth every cut, bruise, scrape, sore muscle, sunburned face or rain drenched body to make it to the top.  The view is spectacular; the journey complete. Many in life want the easy way out or the shortcut. Our God, however, is a mysterious God who uses the hard roads of brokenness and suffering to make our crooked paths straight. The blessings we experience along the way is that He will pave our paths with  faith, obedience and fellowship with Him, both here on this earth and forevermore in eternity.

 God goes before us in our circumstances.  But our great God and His Son, Jesus, have gone before us “in all things”(Colossians 1:17).  Here are a few examples:

·       BEFORE THE FOUNDATION OF THE WORLD: “Just as He choose us BEFORE the foundation of the world, that we would be holy and blameless before Him, in love He  predestined us to adoption as sons through Jesus Christ to Himself, according to the kind intention of His will.”  (Ephesians 1:4)

·       BEFORE YOU WERE BORN:  “And when eight days had passed, BEFORE His circumcision, His name was then called Jesus, the name given by the angel BEFORE He was conceived in the womb.” (Luke 2:21)

·       BEFORE YOU WERE IN RELATIONSHIP WITH HIM:  “Nathanael said to Him, ‘How do You know me?’ Jesus answered and said to him, ‘BEFORE Philip called you, when you were under the fig tree, I saw you.” (John 1:48)

·       BEFORE YOU IN PRAYER: “…your Father knows why you need BEFORE you ask Him.” (Matthew 6:8)

·       BEFORE YOU IN BATTLE:  “Do not be shocked, nor fear them. The Lord your God who goes BEFORE you will Himself fight on your behalf…” (Deuteronomy 1:30)

·       BEFORE YOU WHERE YOU HAVE NOT GONE BEFORE:  “for you have not passed this way before…behold, the ark of the covenant of the Lord of all the earth is crossing over AHEAD OF YOU  into the Jordan.” (Joshua 3: 4,11)

·         BEFORE YOU IN SUFFERING: “And He said to them, ‘I have earnestly desired to eat this Passover with you BEFORE I suffer.” (Luke 22:15)

·       BEFORE YOU IN DEATH:  “Now BEFORE the Feast the Passover, Jesus knowing that His hour had come that He would depart out of this world to the Father, having loved His own who were in the world, He loved them to the end.” (John 13:1)

·       BEFORE YOU IN RESURRECTED LIFE:  “Go quickly and tell His disciples that He has risen from the dead; and behold, He is going AHEAD OF YOU into Galilee, there you will see Him…” (Matthew 28:7)

Not only does He go before us, He is also with us in the midst, and He encloses us from behind. “You have enclosed me behind and before, and laid Your hand upon me.”  (Psalm 139:5) He is always with us!

He is the Alpha and the Omega, the beginning and the end.  He created all of life then experienced all of life as Jesus walked this earth.  He knows us.  He knows our needs.  Trust that He is already in the midst of your circumstance, working it out for your good and His glory.

 How about you?  Are you a follower of Christ?  If not, answer His call to fellowship with Him. “If anyone serves Me, he must follow Me…” (John 12:26) If you are already a Christ follower, then are you allowing Him to lead the way?  Go to Him daily by humbling yourself before His throne, then opening up the pages of the Bible and experiencing that His word “is a lamp to my feet and a light to my path.”  (Psalm 119:105)  During this time listen through prayer for His still, small voice. “Your ears will hear a word behind you, ‘This is the way, walk in it,’ whenever you turn to the left or to the right.” (Isaiah 30:21).  Choose to follow Him daily and continually abide in Him; you will not be alone in the journey if you do.  “My sheep hear My voice, and I know them, and they follow Me.” (John 10:27).