Tag: walk

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Crying Out to God

A dilapitated door with a hole in the middle that shows a dilapidated building 
Psalm 31:21-23 (ESV)—Blessed be the Lord, for he has wondrously shown his steadfast love to me when I was in a besieged city. I had said in my alarm, “I am cut off from your sight.” But you heard the voice of my pleas for mercy when I cried to you for help.

Her distress tolled like a battle cry in the airplane cabin. A few hours into a ten-hour flight from Chicago to Athens, the toddler sitting behind me bolted from her seat into the aisle, screaming, “I don’t want to go to bed; I want to walk around!” Though her parents sat her back down and tried to console her, she resisted bedtime with resounding cries and rambunctious seat kicks.

And she’s not alone in her feelings. In Psalm 31, David remembered feeling abandoned while in a “besieged city” and recounted his initial response: “I am cut off from your sight.” His fear assailed him like the despair a child felt when not sleeping in her own bedroom.

Thankfully, hopelessness and alarm do not have to rule over us. An honest, open relationship with God places us in the protection of his grace and mercy. We can pray to him and know he’ll hear and respond.

Because of this knowledge, we do not have to hunker down in fear of the besiege happening around us. Our alarm is not a signal to dive for cover; it is a sign to call out to God. Our prayer can be “I want to walk with you” rather than “I am cut off from your sight.”

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Walking in Obedience

The Old Town of Zurich along the river
Exodus 23:20 (ESV)—“Behold, I send an angel before you to guard you on the way and to bring you to the place that I have prepared.”

Stepping out of the bustling mall in the Zürich Hauptbahnhof, I clutched my guide book, finger marking the page for the start of a self-guided tour. Chock-full of information, the book led me through the Altstadt (Old Town), into churches whose decor left me in awe, through courtyards surrounded by charming buildings, to the shore of Lake Zürich. The book laid out a history of the area, a step-by-step path for me to walk in the present.

At Mount Sinai, God prepared a path for the people of Israel to follow in the present. He gave them not only the Ten Commandments but also rules for righteous living.

In return for their obedience, he promised to send an angel to protect them and bring them to the place he had prepared for them. He’d drive away their enemies and grow their population, one step at a time to protect the land from desolation and wild animals.

Like Israel’s path, our path comes from God if we choose to walk in obedience. God will help us to grow, one step at a time, on our path for today, our path for tomorrow, our path leading to our place in heaven.