When I consider the way that God reveals the path of my life, it reminds me of the headlights on a car. When navigating the road in the dark, the headlights only illuminate what is directly ahead, not the entire route. Even if I have previewed a map or panned out on the Jeep’s GPS, I am still dependent on the headlights to show me what is most urgently right in front of me. I may know the final destination, but I must also have faith that the road will take me there.
In this analogy, God shows us two things: (1) he has a plan for our lives and, (2) it’s only through faith that the path is finally revealed.
We are obliged to travel a segment of the journey to see what’s next. You may want to know what’s beyond the range of the headlights, so you use the high beams to illuminate the path a little further. In my current Jeep, there is an auto-high beam feature that is smarter than me as it senses when the high beams are needed, and then dims automatically when sensing headlights coming from the other direction. In my way of thinking, God illuminates my path the same way the high beams work, He will add a little additional illumination when I need it, but He asks me to trust Him for the entire journey. If He reveals too much, I may try to jump ahead to the final destination and miss out on sights and experiences along the journey.
Repeatedly (because I’m often stubborn), God solicits me to place my faith in Him for the entire journey. Later, we will talk about how he uses divine diversions, but today, I just need to trust that if I am reading His word, inviting Him into my life with prayer, and being obedient to his nudges, I will arrive at the final destination having the experiences He craves for me, not the selfish desires of this world.
One of my favorite quotes I hear on Sirius’ The Message station is, “God is still writing your story. Stop trying to steal the pen!” Instead of snatching the pen, I should be praying Psalm 25:4-5, “Show me the right path, O Lord; point out the road for me to follow. Lead me by your truth and teach me, for you are the God who saves me. All day long I put my hope in you.”
“So we don’t look at the troubles we can see now; rather, we fix our gaze on the things that cannot be seen. For the things we see now will soon be gone, but the things we cannot see will last forever” (2 Corinthians 4:18 NLT).
My default operating mode is that I want to steal the pen. I want to write out the story with the ending I choose. I long for the Lord to bless what I crave rather than bending my will to His. Deep in my heart, I know his ways are better and that what I am seeking is elusive anyway, but it doesn’t make the struggle any easier. Asking the 25-year-old Julie to write her story would have shown a wife and mom sitting at the ballpark keeping the scorebook for her child’s team, but I don’t have the pen and I must remain on the journey of the story He is writing for me even if I can’t see beyond the headlights.
Please feel free to share in the comments below a time when you desired to have your path illuminated beyond the range of the headlights, and how God grew your faith showed you much greater blessings.
Flourishing @ Life 
Today’s blog reveals how mature a lady you are in our Lord. I am so proud of you!!
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I really love this post. I for sure have problems with wanting to know all the answers right now, but by praying and scripture I have learned that you have to have patience. You can not predict what the future holds, only God knows your journey. Everything happens for a reason- good or bad. You just have to have faith and trust in the Lord because He knows what he is doing. Everything may not play out how you would like, but you just have to trust that He is in control and He is working in the details. You can try to go a different route than what God has plans for you, but He will set up roadblocks to get you on the path he wants you on.
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I agree with what was being said in the blog. We want to know what’s the big picture, using the high beams, instead of worrying about what’s right in front of us. This is why a lot of people get into car wrecks, because they’re more worried about getting to the final destination instead of just driving and worrying about the cars/obstacles around them. It’s also the same way with life, we’re more worried about how our life is supposed to be at the end of our time, rather than what’s supposed to happen right now.
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I really like the analogy used. There has been a time in my life when God already had illuminated my path, but I didn’t like that path because I could see all the potholes and divets in the road. I always knew the destination would be the same. So I tried to veer off and go a different way, but someway somehow beyond my understanding, he put up roadblocks and sent detours to get me back on the right path. At the time I didn’t have strong enough faith in him to help me avoid those potholes but now I do.
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I really like the analogy because I know that God had illuminated my path, but I saw the path that he had for me had some potholes and divets. So I thought I should take things into my own hands and go a different route. Someway, somehow beyond my understanding, he put up; detours and roadblocks to get me back on the path he had for me. At that time I didn’t have strong enough faith that he would guide me around those potholes, but now I do.
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I agree with the content of the blog as I believe that a lot of people, and sometimes myself included, try and predict and focus on the future whatever that will be. This could be anything from starting a family, your future career and many more. In the quote “God is still writing your story. Stop trying to steal the pen!” We need to accept that life is a journey and ever aspect is important, but overall only God knows and has the plan for our life. This can be changed at any time therefore all you can do is concentrate on what’s in front if you.
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Love the analogy
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I like the analogy used because I know that God has illuminated my path. Along that path, I could see potholes and divets so I tried to take it upon myself to find a different route. Yet someway somehow, he puts up roadblocks and set up detours so I can back on the path that he had for me. Though at the time, I didn’t have enough faith to believe that he would guide me, now I do.
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Great analogy Julie!
Psalm 119:105 tells us that God’s word is a “lamp to our feet” (to show us just the path ahead like those headlights) and a light to our path (to give us guidance on the way to go in our journey like the street lights). The more we use the lamp of God’s knowledge, the better we will be at avoiding the potholes and the more we look to God’s light of knowledge and revelation in the path, the closer we will stay on the way He has for us!
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I really love this post. I for sure have problems with wanting to know all the answers right now, but by praying and scripture I have learned that you have to have patience. You can not predict what the future holds, only God knows your journey. Everything happens for a reason- good or bad. You just have to have faith and trust in the Lord because He knows what he is doing. Everything may not play out how you would like, but you just have to trust that He is in control and He is working in the details. You can try to go a different route than what God has plans for you, but He will set up roadblocks to get you on the path he wants you on.
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I love this analogy. It reminds us to focus on what’s in front of us. God has our lives in His hands, so we need to try to not worry so much about what we can’t control. The “headlights of the car” can relate to today. Not tomorrow, or a week, or a year. We need to focus on what’s in front of us and control what we can control.
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I really enjoyed this blog post because it opened up my eyes in a way I never viewed this topic before. The analogy in this is awesome, and something I will try to carry with me. We need to simply focus on what is in front of us, and not what is around us. This can be hard for people because we always want the future to happen now and predict what is going to happen, but instead we just need to let God have control and trust him in his decisions for us. I will admit that I am guilty of this at times, I want to predict all the things that will happen. However, I think that is just something that is in our nature.
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