As you serve our great nation in the military are you embracing your career choice or questioning it? Maybe you’re asking; is this the right branch, the right MOS? How did I land at this duty station, or in this platoon? My brothers and sisters in Christ, I am writing to assure you that you are exactly where God wants you to be at this moment in time and space. In all life, even in human decision making, we have heavenly guardrails that keep us on the path God has ordained (planned) for our lives.
In response you may retort, ‘Ha! You don’t know my circumstances.’ You are right. But what I know about our God allows me to make this confident assertion: no person can crash through God’s heavenly guardrails.
Earthly Guardrails
Guardrails from heaven are similar yet different. To illustrate this let’s picture life as a two-lane thruway heading in one direction. Imagine this in a perspective view where the two lanes fade away to a tiny unknown point in the future in which you will meet Christ face to face. At present, beneath your feet are two wide lanes separated by a dotted line and solid lines bordering the outside of each lane. Engraved into the outside lines are rumble strips which warn you if you move into the spacious shoulders toward the guardrails that run without break all the way to that future point.
Our lives in Christ mirror this imaginary thruway of life. God gives us lines that guide us, lines that warn us, and guardrails that keep us on his road.
In contrast to the physical world this thruway has one specific rule that is different. That dotted line down the middle is where we want to center our travel. It represents the principles and precepts found in the Word of God. For instance, when we decide to buy a car, we listen to the principles in Proverbs that encourage us to avoid large amounts of debt. Such principles and precepts keep us in the center of God’s will for our lives.
Despite being created in God’s image often our desires come into conflict with God’s will. Therefore, those solid lines and the rumble strip are designed to be warnings for us. These lines represent the commanded will of God. The “thou shalls” and the “thou shall nots” of Scripture. As we think about this feature of our imaginary life thruway let’s consider Deuteronomy 29:29:
The secret things belong to the LORD our God, but the things that are revealed belong to us and to our children forever, that we may do all the words of this law.
In our day, the phrase “things that are revealed” represents all of Scripture which is ‘breathed of God’ (2 Tim 3:16). He ‘breathed’ it that we may do all that God desires of us. God does in fact have a specific desire (will) for our lives which he reveals to us even though he knows we will cross his line. However, because he knows we will cross his lines he gives us more grace (James 4:6) especially as he bumps us back to his center for our lives.
When we cross the solid lines ignoring even the rumble strip, God gives us a spacious shoulder to ride on as we figure things out. While riding the shoulder of our life’s thruway we are in sin against God. We are either violating the “thou shall nots” or ignoring the “thou shalls” of Scripture. As we ride the shoulder, he is patient with us calling us back to himself (Romans 2:4, 2 Peter 3:9). Should we push our desire all the more crashing into his guardrail, he will keep us safely in his will. His guardrails show up as people, circumstances, or events that bump us back into his commanded will. To be clear, the point of crash is often a form of discipline. Discipline that is loving, though painful for a short season (Heb 12:6 & 11). Our loving Creator will not let us crash out of the path he has planned for our lives!
How This Matters
Knowing this truth about God helps us today, freeing us from fear in making decisions and giving us confidence after the decision is made.
If we are doing our best to understand the commands and principles that apply to the choices we make, we can be free in our choosing. Dr. Stuart Schott puts it this way in Biblical Manhood: Masculinity, Leadership and Decision Making:
“Trusting God’s way of decision making and in God’s sovereignty is very freeing! The ‘real man’ does not have to worry whether or not he is making the right decision or second guess himself after the decision is made. He can trust that a good God will cause “all thing to work together for good” (Romans 8:28) or providentially re-direct his steps if an honest effort is made to honor scriptural principles along his way. So move forward with God’s Word in mind and TRUST!”
Regardless of your present circumstances, whether you are embracing them or wanting out, you need to know you are exactly where God is keeping you.
“The God who made the world and everything in it, being Lord of heaven and earth, does not live in temples made by man, 25 nor is he served by human hands, as though he needed anything, since he himself gives to all mankind life and breath and everything. 26 And he made from one man every nation of mankind to live on all the face of the earth, having determined allotted periods and the boundaries of their dwelling place, 27 that they should seek God, and perhaps feel their way toward him and find him. Yet he is actually not far from each one of us, 28 for “‘In him we live and move and have our being’; as even some of your own poets have said, “‘For we are indeed his offspring’” (Acts 17:24-28).
Brothers and sisters, if you are feeling as though you are in a dark place, the wrong place, encourage yourself with the Word of God. You are where you are by his desire and will that you might feel your way toward him becoming more like him!