Our Trustworthy Guide - Part 1

Welcome to the In Touch Podcast with Charles Stanley for Thursday, September seventh. Are you wondering what you should do next? The promise of Scripture is that if believers take time to listen, God will make the next step known. Today, we embrace the truth of our trustworthy guide. On one of my photographic trips some time ago, we had been traveling up this particular trail for about three hours, I suppose. And I began to have this funny feeling that we were going the wrong direction. So, when I asked the guide about that, he assured me that everything was fine and that we were heading the right direction. So, without being too a presumptuous, I waited a few minutes and I pulled out my compass. So, I went back to him and I said, Sir, I don't really think we're going in the right direction. So, we got to talking about it a little bit and looking at the compass and finally he said, You're right. So, it took us about an hour and a half to get back where we got off the trail. So, we lost that amount of time.

Got in a little bit late, had done a late, for example, and probably passed by a number of good photos that we'd lost the light on. And so, it made me realize how very important whoever is guiding you needs to know the trail, needs to know the path, needs to know where you're going in life. Well, I want you to turn, if you will, to the thirty-second psalm. And what I want us to look at here is simply this, our trustworthy guide. All of us need a guide and there is a trustworthy guide that we have. And these two verses are all clearly about God's guidance and direction in prayer life.

And there are many verses in the Scripture, but I want you to look at these first two here in Psalm thirty-two beginning in verse eight. Listen to what he says. There's a promise and then there's a warning. He says, I will instruct you and teach you in the way which you should go. I will counsel you with My eye upon you. Do not be as the horse or as the mule which have no understanding, whose trappings include both bit and bridle to hold them in check.

Otherwise, they will not come near to you. Now, here's a simple challenge, promise, and that is that God says He will instruct us. He will teach us in the way we should go.

He will guide us on our path. So, let's think about it for a moment because go back, if you will, to the thirty-first psalm. And I want you to notice two or three passages of Scripture here.

And because all through the Old Testament especially, there's those promises of God's guidance and many, many illustrations of how God has guided His children. And He says in this thirty-first psalm and the third verse, For you are My rock and My fortress. For your name's sake you will lead Me and guide Me. And the seventy-third psalm, I'll look at that for a moment. And I want you to notice, if you will, in the twenty-third verse of this seventy-third psalm and He says, Nevertheless, I am continually with you. You have taken hold of My right hand. With your counsel you will guide Me.

And afterwards receive Me to glory. So, when you think about the promises of God and lots of promises and different ways that God has shown His promise in the Scripture, ask yourself the question again, Am I seeking real, genuine guidance from anybody? Or do I just feel like I have to make up my own mind about things? And the truth is, I simply want to say this, first of all, we all need a guide. We all need a guide because God did not make us and equip us to live our lives only in our own wisdom and understanding of things, but we need a guide.

And so, somebody says, Well, why do I need a guide? Well, think about life as a journey, for example. As we said, it's an untrodden journey. Nobody walks your exact path. So, let's think about the kind of trails you and I will walk in our lifetime.

First of all, sometimes we're going to be walking trails that are mountainous trails, taking us high. Sometimes very difficult to climb. The difficulties in life that you and I face, we'll always face at intervals in our life. Then there are those valleys we go through, those times of difficulty and hardship when things don't seem to be going too well. Then there are those deserts we cross when there seems to be want and need and somehow the need's not being met. There are times of conflict with people around us.

There are times of genuine love and confidence and wonderful relationships. There are times of sickness and sorrow. There are times of loss and pain. There are times of war and there are times of dissension, times of anger. And oftentimes, as we go through these different experiences in life, we think, well, God, why have You let all this? The truth is, that's just the way life is for the simple reason that we live in a fallen world. When man fell in the Garden of Eden, it all began right there. And life has been tough and difficult ever since.

Different situations, different circumstances. But remember this, your path's untrodden. Nobody can walk your path. Your journey in life is an untrodden path for you. Where many other people may experience similar things, you are absolutely unique because there's just one of you. And God created you for His purpose and His plan. He had something in mind, very specific, when He allowed you to be born into this world. And from the moment you are born, the moment you pass on the glory or wherever you may spend eternity, you are on a journey and you need direction and guidance for your life. And I want to show you in a few moments why that's true. So, look at what He said. He said, I will instruct you.

He wouldn't have said that if we had not needed it. I will instruct you. I will teach you in the way you should go. I will counsel you with My eye upon you. Which says that God is intimate in His relationship with us. And so He says, I'm, you're going to be under My watchcare the whole time. Now, why would a person want to live their life in a way not to be under the watchcare of Almighty God? The truth is, He is anyway. But to ignore that, to ignore God's presence, to ignore His wisdom, to ignore His guidance, to ignore His direction, and take off on paths that appear to be exactly what you want to do, or look so inviting over here or so adventuresome over here, when they're off God's planned pathway for your life.

We all need it. And if you think about oftentimes when people get themselves in trouble, what have they done? They've ignored God for the moment. And they've stepped that on their own. They've gone by their emotions, not by their spirit.

They've traveled on the basis of what appears, what looks, what sounds, what smells, what tastes. Not rather, what is the will of God? What is His plan?

What does He have in mind? So, I want you to think about this. God who's planned all of this for us has planned it motivated by love. So, why would I not want to follow a plan that is motivated by pure love? That is something that is best for me no matter what.

And yet, people choose to live a life of simple rebellion toward God. I'll do it my way. I know what the Bible says about this.

I understand all that. But the truth is, this is the way I'm going to live. Now think about this for a moment. God did not make any of us adequate to live out this life the way He planned it for us on our own. We're not adequate to do that. We have a sinful nature. We came into this world with that. So, there's a lot we don't know. There are things that we can't figure out ourselves apart from the wisdom and grace and mercy of Almighty God. And so, the truth is, we're inadequate to live out this life the way He planned it for us.

And so, what happens? We make decisions that are painful and want to blame somebody else. We come from situations and instead of growing up and becoming mature, we want to blame our parents for what they did or did not do in our life. Or we want to blame someone else instead of stopping to think, how can I live out this life the very best? I think about so many people who do not know how to discover who God is in their life. They don't know how to discover who Jesus Christ can be in their life. They're missing out on some of the most awesome, glorious information, which is simply the truth about God and the truth about what He wants us to understand about Himself.

We're inadequate to do it. So, you see, that's why it's so absolutely essential you and I have a guide. We have a spiritual guide and that guide is the Lord Jesus Christ who saved us from our sins, who's promised to be with us, never leave us nor forsake us. How foolish to live your life and ignore the very God who created you.

Ignore the very Jesus who died on the cross for you. And who says, I'll never leave you nor forsake you. I'll always be there.

Listen to what He said. He said, I will teach you in the way which you should go. I will guide you with My eye upon you. And He says, I will counsel you. I will counsel you with My eye upon you. That is, I will give you direction. I will show you which way to go. I'll tell you when not to go there. I'll tell you when not to buy that.

I'll show you when not to have that relationship. I will counsel you, He says, with My eye upon you. Why would we not be wise enough to listen to that kind? Because, you see, there are lots of people out there who will guide you. A lot of folks who will give you advice about where you ought to work, what you ought to wear, what you ought to drive, where you ought to live, how you ought to act, how you ought to talk. In other words, there are lots of people out there, in fact, the television is full of propaganda doing what? Telling you what you ought to eat, how much you ought to weigh, what shape you ought to have.

Everything imaginable. What are they doing with telling you what you ought to do? You ever stop to think about that God knows better than they do what you ought to do and what you ought to wear and where you ought to live and what you ought to drive and what you ought to eat and how much you ought to eat? God is our God, not the world. And what we've done, we have allowed the world to propagandize to the point that we say, Yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, because we think everybody else is saying, Yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, and they're not.

We have this awesome God who is, listen, a dependable, trustworthy God that takes care of every single facet of our life. So, I'm simply asking you this. Have you ignored Him? Are you doing it your way? Are you willing to listen to Him?

Now, I want you to think about something else here. And when you think about the fact of how inadequate we are and how adequate He is, and you see, He will never disappoint us. He'll never fail us. And listen, God will never mislead us. Only God knows you. Only God knows you perfectly. So, when He says, I will counsel you with My eye upon you, we can know that He's trustworthy for several reasons.

And first, here's the first reason. The first reason is because He knows us perfectly. He's a trustworthy guide. He knows us perfectly. He knows your personality. He knows how you respond, how you act, how you feel.

He knows your personality. He knows our strengths, for example. He knows what we can handle, what we can't handle.

He knows how much endurance you and I can deal with. He knows our weaknesses. He knows what tempts us. He knows what tries us. He knows all the aspects of our personalities, strengths, and weaknesses. He knows what our desires are even before we do. He knows those things that we would like to anticipate experiencing in life. He knows about our relationships. He knows everything about us. So, the best guides are those who really know the people that they're going to guide. Your heavenly Father's omniscient.

He knows everything there is to know about us. So therefore, why would you not follow the guide who knows you so well, knows your likes, knows your dislikes, knows what really helps you, knows what hurts you, knows what pains you, knows what gives you joy, knows the things that you appreciate in life, knows the things that you want to watch out for? Why not follow the most awesome guide there is, and that is Almighty God? And yet, there are those who think, and maybe you happen to be one of them, who thinks that you know how to figure this all out, and you really and truly do not need anybody telling you what to do. Let's face it, none of us know ourselves perfectly.

We have all kinds of opinions about ourselves that change probably at times in life. Today, you feel fantastic. Today, you feel confident. Tomorrow, you're down in the dumps. Why are you down in the dumps?

I don't know why I'm down in the dumps. And so the truth is, no one knows us like our trustworthy God who is Almighty God. He knows us perfectly, and not only that, He knows the best path for us.

But you know what? His plan doesn't do us a bit of good unless I'm willing to stop and ask Him to show me. And listen, He's available to guide us.

The question is, are we available to follow Him? And there are lots of people out there who want you to follow them. They want you to believe what they believe. I only want you to believe what God says. They want you to believe what they believe about many different things in life.

And sometimes that can be very destructive, and sometimes it can be eternally destructive. God the Father. Jesus Christ the Son. The Holy Spirit who lives and dwells and has sealed every single believer as a child of God. He's like the compass on the inside of us, giving us direction.

God the Father, seated at the Father's right hand is the Lord Jesus Christ. All of us are under His control. Under His eye, He sees us all. And when you think about sin, for example, and doing something in secret, I'm sorry, but there's no such thing.

There's no such thing as anything secret. Everything is open and bare to God. He says so in the Scripture. And so why would I want, not want, my God to be someone who's already looked down the path? He's already looked down the path. He knows everything from the last heartbeat to this very moment. He sees the dangers. He sees the pitfalls. He sees the things that He knows you cannot handle. And so He is so willing because He's so knowledgeable about every single aspect of our life. Why would you want to follow any other direction?

That is exactly what people do. So, when I think about the reasons for following Him, the fact that He knows us perfectly, and that He has set the best path for us, and sometimes we think we know the path, but there are those things that you and I cannot foresee. He knows all the things out there that are dangerous. He knows exactly what we're to avoid and what we can pass right by. We think, you know, because we can see today and we've got it all planned out and we know how it's all going to work out, oftentimes it doesn't work out that way. That's why we need a guide. And you see, His plan and His guidance for us, He knows all the traps. He knows all the pitfalls. There's no way for us to be able to look at life and we don't even know the next second.

It all looks so settled. And yet, we read it all the time. People get in their car in the morning, go to work. They get two miles from home, kill instantly.

That wasn't in the plan, couldn't foresee. And the person who lives so pridefully that they ignore God, I want to tell you how foolish that is. Because on the other side of your last heartbeat is eternity.

It's the Lord Jesus Christ who loved you enough to save you, but you rejected Him because you chose to ignore Him in your life. You can't foresee what's on the trail out there. And remember, it's your trail. And it's the trail that God has for you.

If you stay on His trail, He's there to watch over you, to care for you. Does that mean there's not going to be any difficulties? Oh no. There'll be some difficulties. There'll be some hardships.

There'll be times when it's very difficult and you'll say, Lord, this can't be my, suddenly you wouldn't plan this. Yes, He does. He doesn't say anywhere in His Word that it's going to be easy. He says, I'm going to guide you with my eye upon you.

I'm going to teach you in the way in which you should go. That if He's guiding His, me with His eye upon me as He is you, then He already knows. Because you see, remember, He's already seen the end of your path and every single second all the way down to this present moment He knows exactly what's there. He's omniscient. Because how does He look at your life? He looks at your life just like that. He sees it all at one time. He's omniscient. He knows all things. There's nothing hidden before Him. And so therefore, when you and I, and we are walking this trail in this life, when we are inadequate within ourselves because we can't foresee. We, no matter how well you plan, you can't plan for everything. There will be hardships and difficulties and trials out there and experiences in life that you would never have planned and you would have sworn on a stack of Bibles, that'll never happen to me.

And sure enough, it did. So, I'm asking you simply this, who's running your life? Who's guiding your life? Is there someone out there that knows you perfectly? No. Can always give you the exact right advice? No.

You need God in your life. Thank you for listening to our Trustworthy Guide. If you'd like to know more about Charles Stanley or In Touch Ministries, stop by InTouch.org. This podcast is a presentation of In Touch Ministries, Atlanta, Georgia.