FOLLOW ONLY HIM

One night when my husband Don and I were out together, I asked him to guide me to the ladies’ room. As we walked, I was talking excitedly. I felt Don’s footsteps pause, but I kept right on talking and stepped beyond him. I couldn’t figure out why he kept trying to interrupt me. A few steps into the bathroom, I understood. The cold fixture hanging from the wall said it all. To my horror and Don’s delight, I was in the …

After losing much of my central and peripheral vision, I have become unable to walk in unfamiliar settings without assistance. So I have had to learn to travel with a sighted guide. In order to move successfully from one place to another, I have to take the arm of another person and then rely on them completely for directional cues. If I’m going to follow their lead and keep in step with their stride, I have to concentrate totally on what they are saying and doing.

In our spiritual walk, the Holy Spirit, through the Word of God, acts as our Sighted Guide. If we are to walk successfully in the Spirit we have to take the Spirit’s arm, follow His lead and listen to His words.

Walking with a sighted guide is a learning process. So is walking in the Spirit and keeping in step with Him. Both require practice. Let’s face it. Relying on someone else’s vision instead of our own is not easy. We want to be independent, to go our own way and do our own thing. Instead of taking the arm of the Spirit and walking slightly behind Him, we rush ahead and step beyond Him, refusing His advice to stop, wait, and beware.

Given my present sightlessness, I would physically stumble or trip and fall if I struck out without the help of someone who sees. The same is true for us in the spiritual realm. When we set out headlong ahead of the Spirit we are bound to trip or stumble and fall.

Are you headed out on your own and in the wrong direction? Why not pause right where you are and listen for the Lord? Ask Him to open your eyes to see and your ears to hear Him. Invite Him to take the lead as you commit to always and only follow Him.

My sheep hear My voice, and I know them,
and they follow Me.
John 10:27