11232019 Jesus Led Me All the Way

Dear Missionary Lady,

Greetings in the name of our superintending God. Recently my thoughts were prompted in this direction when we sang the following hymn in church.

"Someday life's journey will be o'er/ And I shall reach that distant shore./ I'll sing while ent'ring Heaven's door,/ 'Jesus led me all the way.'

Jesus led me all the way,/ Led me step by step each day;/ I will tell the saints and angels/ As I lay my burdens down,/ 'Jesus led me all the way.'

If God should let me there review/ The winding paths of earth I knew,/ It would be proven clear and true/ Jesus led me all the way."

As we sang, especially that second verse about the "winding paths of earth," I thought that I could never have imagined all the twists of the many steps on my path. As young people, we are naive. We have this idea that God's will is one unchangeable thing - that we will graduate college and then find a job or ministry that will take us through the rest of our lives. I suppose some people have ambitions and see each job as preparation for the next job, but even then, they have a career path that stretches out like one unified and orchestrated road.

In many ways it would be nice to have that continuity, stability, and familiarity. It would be nice to continue in one place long enough to see long-term results and visible growth and to establish lasting relationships. That might happen for a few people, but I don't think it's very typical. Personally, when I enter a job (or ministry, in particular), I have the idea that I will do it until I die or am too old to continue. That isn't the path God has chosen for me.

Like many of you, my life has been a series of unexpected changes. I knew my first job out of college was just temporary until God directed me to the mission field. When I went to Mexico, I expected that to be my life work, but it lasted only three-and-a-half years. God then unexpectedly led me back to college to get my teaching degree. The next step was logical. He led me to a good school that I loved and where I expected to spend the rest of my life, but after six-and-a-half years, that door decisively closed against all my efforts to hold it open. At age forty, I was starting over, but it took over a year-and-a-half of waiting before a new path opened. Finally, I found a new school where surely I would teach until I retired. But, no. In an unexpected and puzzling move, God closed that door after only one year.

I've been in a secular job for seven years since then, and I don't completely understand that, although I do see it as God's clear leading. In essence, God has changed the entire focus of my ministry from full-time, vocational ministry to free-time, volunteer ministry. I still serve Him in various ways as He directs, but nothing like what I expected my life to be. I was recently contemplating the twists of my life's course, and I realized that as God clearly led in the past into teaching, He has just as clearly led me out of teaching and in other directions.

We don't always know the "why" of the changes. The changes may not be our preference. But whether it be a new church, new ministry partner, new location, new country, new type of ministry, new mission board, or new whatever else, we can know that God is guiding and superintending.

God does guide. "Thou shalt guide me with thy counsel, and afterward receive me to glory" (Psalm 73:24). "In all thy ways acknowledge him, and he shall direct thy paths" (Proverbs 3:6). When God takes us in a new direction, He isn't making a mistake.

God gives us answers when we seek Him. During one of my transition times, I took a brief trip designed to obtain answers to several specific questions about my future direction. I prayed for God's guidance, and He gave it, although not with any of the answers I was hoping for. His answers were clear, however, and my prayers for guidance were definitely answered. Clear answers from God are far more important than our preferred answers, and my gratitude for His unmistakable guidance prompted the following poem.

Praise to the God of Answers

No answer that God does not know -/ No mystery is beyond His ken./ For He has planned each course just so,/ Both what will come and what has been./ Oh, praise to God who knows it all./ In gratitude I humbly fall.

This knowing God can also show/ His answers unto seeking men/ So they can know the path to go./ He lets them know what, where, and when./ Oh, praise to God who shows to me./ My thanks to Him each day shall be.

His answers are worked out also./ Effective power He will send/ To do what from His mind did flow./ His plans succeed once and again./ Oh, praise to God who works it out./ My feet can follow without doubt.

If your life has taken multiple turns, you can know that God directed each one. If you are in a time of transition, even if it's the tenth one of your ministry, you can rest assured that God is superintending. If a change unexpectedly arises in the near future, then also can have confidence that God knew all about it and worked to bring it about. Will you understand? Maybe not. Will it be your preference? Maybe not that either. But can you trust and follow the God who directed? Absolutely. And some day you will look back and gratefully declare, "Jesus led me all the way."

Love in Christ,
Peggy Holt
member at Open Door Baptist Church in Lebanon, PA
www.pressingontohigherground.blogspot.com