GOD’S GPS!
“If you are guided by the Spirit, you won't obey your selfish desires. The Spirit and your desires are enemies of each other. They are always fighting each other and keeping you from doing what you feel you should.”

Galatians 5:16-17

I don’t remember ever telling anyone this, but during the summer of my 21st birthday I did something very foolish.

Now I know what you are probably thinking. “It must be something stupid, morally corrupt and shameful.” Well for me it was. I was self assured and thought I was ready to take on and change the world for God. I was traveling back home after a short “missions trip” to Ohio. I lived in Tennessee and all other states were mission fields.

OK, here it is! I got on the road to go back home to Tennessee and went fifty miles north before I realized I was going the wrong way. Then I turned around and went south. So one hundred miles later I was back where I started. “Egg on my face.” Thankfully, I was driving a very small high mileage car and gasoline was about 45 cents a gallon at the time.

I didn’t make mistakes like that. People who did were the brunt of jokes. But there I was a couple of hours later with no progress toward home.

Today I have a GPS to take with me on trips. So, for the most part, I don’t get lost anymore. My wife says I am good at getting lost even while using the GPS. With the GPS I at least know which way is north and which way is south.

Galatians 5:16-17 talks about God’s GPS system. The Spirit is there to guide me. If I listen to and obey the Spirit I will make no wrong turns and will daily make progress toward the goal that He has set for my life. There will be moments every day when it seems right to go another way. The way He is leading is uncomfortable and wars against my own desires. Those are watershed moments. That choice will determine the path for a long time to come, whether you choose to follow the Spirit or choose to go your own way.

The GPS which I currently use is very sophisticated. If I make one wrong turn a woman boldly speaks up and says “YOU ARE NOW OFFTRACK.” She then tells me to turn around and go back to where I made the wrong turn.

God’s GPS system works the same. When I make a wrong turn the Holy Spirit boldly speaks up and says “YOU ARE NOW OFF TRACK.”