SPEAKER_00: Hi everyone, it's Nancy with your Wednesday edition of our daily walk.
SPEAKER_00: Yesterday I had to make a trip to a nearby town.
SPEAKER_00: I had a route in mind, the way I should go.
SPEAKER_00: Actually, my map program charted it out for me, and I started along that way.
SPEAKER_00: But when I came upon some traffic, I guess I got a little impatient, and I thought I knew better and I was gonna take a different route.
SPEAKER_00: So I ignored my program and went my way.
SPEAKER_00: Well I didn't get far before I hit a road closure and some detours and more traffic, and I ended up having to figure out how to get to my destination.
SPEAKER_00: I finally made it, but if I had just followed the route prepared for me, I would have been there easier and on time and a lot less stressed.
SPEAKER_00: On the way back, I knew the right route to take, so I headed that way.
SPEAKER_00: My eyes were on the road and on the car in front of me, but part of my mind, I'll admit, was distracted by the rain clouds rolling in, by some construction I was curious about, by my to-do list that was looming in my mind, by a radio program I was listening to.
SPEAKER_00: And then I looked up and realized I missed my turn.
SPEAKER_00: I was not paying attention to what I was doing and where I was going, and I just drifted off course.
SPEAKER_00: In both instances, I had a plan, a plan that would get me to where I wanted and needed to go.
SPEAKER_00: But I didn't follow through.
SPEAKER_00: I didn't do what I knew was right, whether intentional or by not paying attention to what I was doing and the consequences.
SPEAKER_00: So I wonder about the Israelites we read about in Nehemiah chapter 13.
SPEAKER_00: They were rebellious.
SPEAKER_00: They turned their backs on God's commands, his plan for their lives.
SPEAKER_00: Did they do so in deliberate defiance of him?
SPEAKER_00: Or did they take their eyes off of God's leading and find themselves carelessly drifting away from his will for their lives?
SPEAKER_00: Oh, I don't know about them and what was in their hearts, but I do know that when I sin, when I turn away from God's commands for me, his plan for me, whether I do so willfully or by taking my eyes off of him and not following him, I have a Savior who is ready and waiting for me to turn back to him.
SPEAKER_00: He meets me there with his mercy, his forgiveness, his grace.
SPEAKER_00: When I seek him with my whole heart, he puts me back on course with his perfect plan for my life that will lead me home to the home he has prepared for me.
SPEAKER_00: As I thought about all this, I was reminded of Jeremiah 29, verses eleven through thirteen.
SPEAKER_00: So I'll close our time with this passage from God's Word.
SPEAKER_00: For I know the plans I have for you, declares the Lord, plans for welfare and not for evil, to give you a future and a hope.
SPEAKER_00: Then you will call upon me and come and pray to me, and I will hear you.
SPEAKER_00: You will seek me and find me when you seek me with all your heart.
SPEAKER_00: Amen.