The Lord is Leading - Are You Following?

Are you struggling under your own strength?
Have you cried out to God for help?
The Lord is faithful to all those who sincerely turn to Him, asking Him to lead. Yet you still must choose to follow where He takes you. He will not force you to go where you will not to go.
Have you chosen to follow Him? Or are you resisting His lead?


Psalm 107:4-6 (KJV)
They wandered in the wilderness in a solitary way; they found no city to dwell in.
Hungry and thirsty, their soul fainted in them.
Then they cried unto the Lord in their trouble, and he delivered them out of their distresses.


We start out wandering the wilderness on our own strength. We can't not find rest on our own. There is no place to be found because we keep trying to do it in our own strength, in our own "solitary way". (v. 4)


Finally our soul is so wear it faints within us. We have spiritually starved our soul. (v. 5) It was only when we hit rock bottom on our own strength that we finally cry out to God. (Why, oh why, do we wait so long?!)


God is ever faithful. In verse 6, it says "and he delivered them out of their distresses." It doesn't say God demands anything from us. He will deliver us right after we cry out to Him. (*Side note* You ever notice that you are much more sincere in your out reach to God when you are in peril? And that sometimes it seems that God isn't as quick to respond when you are not distressed? Perhaps we aren't as sincere in our reaching when we are not struggling.) There is nothing we can give to God that isn't already His - therefore all He asks of us is that we seek Him and ask Him of the things we need. He already knows what we need before we even do. (Matthew 6:8) He just wants us to ask!


Now in verse 7 it says "he led them forth". God will lead us out of our troubles, "by the right way". There is a specific way God leads us. We will never get out of something (especially a self-dug pit) by taking the wrong way. By blazing our own trail. God knows best and only His way, only His chosen path for us will get us where we need to be.


Also, notice it says, "that they might go". God will lead us. He will show us the "right way" and He even tells us where His way will lead. Yet He only Leads. the choice to follow is still ours to make. God says "this is the right way to go. All you need to do is follow this path I've shown you."


And finally verse 7 tells us where God's "right way" leads us. If we keep on His path we will "go to a city of habitation", or dwelling place. And it's not just a quaint little village. No! It's a CITY He's leading us to. A place of rest and refuge. This place is the exact opposite of where we were.


We would be out of the wilderness and into a city, and they would not be alone anymore. For to get to this place you must walk with God down the path of His "right way". If you need to follow Him to get to the city He leads you to, He will not leave you there! (2 Corinthians 4:8-9) No more is it a "solitary way" but it becomes His way, and His alone. No more does the soul faint for starvation, hungering and thirsting after the things of God.


Psalm 107:8-9
Oh that men would praise the Lord for his goodness, and for his wonderful works to the children of men!
For he satisfieth the longing soul, and filleth the hungry soul with goodness.
Psalm 139:23-24
Search me, O God, and know my heart: try me, and know my thoughts:
And see if there be any wicked way in me, and lead me in the way everlasting.