When God directs our steps.

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It’s practically a Christian cliche. We hear often and we know that it is true, that we ought to let God direct our steps. Most of the time when I say this, I mean to imply that I’m going to be walking in a general direction in order to get to the goal that I have in mind. In that process I am hopeful that God will direct my steps to help me achieve my goal with the most ease and fewest obstacles possible. Is God really concerned with my goal at all? If so, is He concerned with helping me to avoid obstacles? Many Bible stories make me believe otherwise. Often God put obstacles in the way of the faithful as a means to increase or bring out their faith. The obstacles prove the faith of the faithful, not to God, but to the faithful.

Yet I will exult in the Lord,
I will rejoice in the God of my salvation.
The Lord God is my strength,
And He has made my feet like hinds’ feet,
And makes me walk on my high places.
Habakkuk 3:18-19 (New American Standard Version)

The point is not to get from point A to point B in the easiest manner possible and thus show the world that God makes life easy. (Though He sometimes does this too.) The point is to show that even in adversity, His children are able to rise above, to believe and trust that He is good, and to take steps toward Him. He directs our steps and “makes me walk on my high places”. There are difficult places that Christians must go. Even if the goal could be obtained in an easier way, God instead calls us to the high places where fear and doubt threaten to take hold.

But the very God Who places me in this difficult circumstance is also the One who has made my feet like hinds’ feet. He works faith and trust into me and weaves them into my heart. He uses the very fear and doubt that should crush my faith to instead strengthen me.

I will exult in the Lord, the God of my salvation.

Copyright photo Doug Brauner text David Brukiewa