The Plumbline

The Lord directs our steps, so why try to understand everything along the way? (Proverbs 20:24 NLT) Do you have to understand everything before you ever undertake the first steps into something new? Too many times, we limit God by having to understand all that he is doing or all that is happening in the moment. He wants us to follow the path he marks out, trusting him as we take each step, knowing he has prepared those steps/events well in advance of us taking that first step. The more we question, the more we reveal our lack of trust in God. We must trust his guidance and lean into his goodness. He won't ask more of us than he will equip us to do, nor will he ask us to do things that are harmful. He watches over our steps, one by one, until the mission he asks of us is complete. Needing to understand every little thing he is doing isn't realistic. Some of what he does now is for our future - the steps we have yet to take down the road. Without those first steps, there would...

 Arthur C. Clark reminds us, "The only way to discover the limits of the possible is to go beyond them into the impossible." Scripture reminds us: “Then who in the world can be saved?” they asked. Jesus looked at them intently and said, “Humanly speaking, it is impossible. But with God everything is possible.” (Matthew 19:25-26 NLT) Everything seems impossible until God intervenes, especially when it comes to dealing with our sin nature. The truth of the matter is that the harder we try to resist sin with little more than our willpower, the harder it will be to actually break the cycle of sin and compromise in our lives. We need the Spirit of God if we are to ever break free of sin's downward cycle in our lives. Discovering the limits of our own ability to 'resist' is the beginning of our journey toward what is 'possible' ONLY through the help of God. We might think we are doing a pretty good job of resisting sin in our lives, then we realize we are just ...