Psalm 89 What are you following?

All of of us are leaders in one realm or another. We lead in our homes with our children, we lead a group of students in a bible study, we lead a game at a party, we lead co-workers, we lead the way to get somewhere...you get the picture. However, we lead--only if others are following. One can not be deemed a great leader if he/she never has any followers. So the question is--who is following you? Do your children follow your lead? When you say “come” or “no” do they listen right away? Does your small group of students seem to be following and thriving? Are your co-workers being challenged to follow? Do they trust your leadership? Are you leading your home in the roles God has given you--with your time, money, presence, etc.?

A few years ago I went hiking in Montana for a week with a group of students. We were navigated through a group called Leader Treks. Leader Treks set up the trip for the students to have a day of leading. Two students would have a map, compass and destination. They had to get us there. One day after hiking at least 10 hours we had come to the place we thought was our end for the night. According to the map and compass we were there! But little did we know our trail had taken us to the edge of a cliff. We had two options. We could hike down the cliff to water (which we needed because all of our nalgene's were empty and our dinner was prepared with water over a fire) or...we could hike back a few miles (which means hours in the wilderness) to a water hole we had previously passed. Turns out our map was outdated and our trail had lead us to false hope. We decided to take the challenge of scaling down the mountain. God protected and provided a way--but every student was crying...we set up our tent site in pitch darkness...and we ate processed snacks for dinner because it was too late to cook over the fire. It was a testing time to say the least. I’d like to say the trip got better and we ended on a positive note--but that was the just the beginning of the difficulties we faced in the wilderness.

All of that to say is--what are you following? Are you following the lead of an “old map”? Listening to a friend that isn’t giving you Godly advice? Listening to your “gut” instead of God’s word? We live in a time that it is popular to listen to your heart and your intuition. And yes...there are times to do that. But are you feeding your heart and intuition with God’s word? Are you going to the Word of God first?

Psalm 89 is about how God rules over the surging sea; his strong arm scatters our enemies; the heavens and earth belong to Him; God created the north and the south. I don’t know about you--but I know the one that I want to follow! And that is the God we are worshipping through our scripture--who created the heavens and the earth--and most importantly--YOU AND ME!!