How God guides us: The bicycle principle
A blog reader recently wrote this comment “What happens when God is NOT leading for a Season and you choose a path… NOT knowing if He would choose that for you?” Here was my response:
Bicycles can only be steered once they are rolling
forward. A stationary bike doesn’t need
guidance. So it is between God and
us. He wants to guide us, but to do so,
we need to be in motion, about His business – touching people on His
behalf.
We see God state this as a covenantal proposition in Isaiah
58. The task is to demonstrate to the
poor, the hungry, and the oppressed that God cares about them.
God doesn’t say, “If you’ll do just the
basics and look out for your own needs, then I’ll guide you.” He says, “If you’ll spend yourself in behalf
of the hungry and satisfy the needs of the oppressed…then the Lord will guide
you always.”(Is. 58:10-11)
Why will He guide us?
For one thing, we will need His guidance. Ministering to the down and out is hard
work.
There are so many; how do we know
which to target or how to go about identifying and meeting their needs? We need His guidance.
Over and over the pattern is repeated: God gives His people an assignment for which
they are inadequate, then provides what they need. The message: “Go and rescue my people and I
will guide you and protect you.”
God cares about people and wants to touch them. Jesus’ heart burst with compassion when he
surveyed the teaming crowds and needy people who seemed like sheep without a
shepherd.
But God’s plan for
demonstrating His compassion has always been a man. He has chosen to work through us “as though
God were making His appeal through us” (2 Cor. 5:20).
Continued in tomorrow’s blog
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Amen!
YEP!!! Here is a blog I posted a few months ago…
When we ask God, why why why???
It must be like trying to explain to a child trying to learn a bike… why he fell off. Why did you let go daddy, as he looks up at you with tears in his eyes, why did you let me fall… what do you say, how do you show him… son it is the only way for you to learn balance.
That must be what God feels like when we say WHY??? Why did you let me fall… we only have hindsight, He has foresight, He has set the path before us. We look back and say, oh I get it, that is what that lesson was about, but He looks forward, He gets it, He knows that we will find balance, we will learn to ride. It must be the same joy in his heart as in the parent when we get it… and it must be the same pain in his heart as in our when we see our children hurt, when we fall we are angry at dad maybe, but our heavenly Father knows the anger is temporary, He can take it, He understands, He has been there… He is with us, He loves us that much, enough, to sometimes let us fall.
What is your bicycle, where are you asking why? Why must I fall…instead of saying Daddy, show me how to ride! Show me the path!
This is so cool. I had just finished working with a student and reading over an article he was using for his research. In it, Ambassador Walker referred to the bicycle principle, i. e. that if you’re not moving forward, you’re falling down. The Lord started to speak to my heart about the spiritual application, so I decided to google it before I wrote about it on my blog. That’s how I came across yours. Well done.
Glad you liked it. It’s helped me.