Your word is a lamp to guide my feet and a light for my path. Psalm 119:105
The lamp that David is referencing would have burned a small flame, nowhere near the intensity of a modern flashlight. But it would illuminate enough to show your immediate environment – where you stand and what is a step away. If you had to walk around at night on those rocky trails, a lamp would be enough to keep you from tripping or even from veering off the path completely.
The Bible offers similar guidance. God has given us instructions for living to keep us on the path. Truth can reveal danger as well as reassure that we are on solid footing. If we are not using that light as we walk through our day, it increases the chance we will fall. We can be hurt and hurt others as well. And a sinful step moves us away from a God who is calling us close.
In this picture He has given us, God lights the path, but only in that small area surrounding us. He doesn’t show it all the way to the destination. Much of the instruction I find in the Bible is for right now, right in the moment, and not for some distant point. From where I’m standing, the lamp shows if that next step is on His path or not. When I go to His Word for guidance, I can measure if that next step is within the guidelines of obedience. Is it loving? Is it truthful? Does it go against any of His direct instructions? How I answer those will tell me if my foot is going to land on solid ground.
What it doesn’t do is show me what’s on the path further ahead. When I obey and take that step, only then do we know what will confront us in the next one. That’s hard for me. I like to have 5 (or 10 or 100 steps) planned ahead. I want to know when I take a step in a certain direction what the steps that follow will look like. But that’s not faith. That’s control.
God’s Word, His instruction, shows where the path is and if my feet are on it. I can see everything I need (just not everything I want) to move towards Him. I want to let go of control and exercise faith by walking my journey just one step at a time.
