God will guide us where ever we go

I was recently attending a Bible study on the Book of Acts at the Life BP Church night classes. The pastor recommended a English Standard Version Study Bible. The difference between a normal Bible and a Study Bible is that the latter is filled with commentaries on each and every verse, enabling the reader to understand the verse in terms of the past and present context. Furthermore, the ESV is a literal translation of the original manuscripts, more accurate than the RSV or KJV(which with its archaic english, makes it even harder to understand.

So right after my quiz at school, I went straight to SKS Book store at tiong bahru. The night before, I had used streetdirectory.com to find the rough location of the Book Store, which is according to a church mate, five minutes walk away from the MRT Station. Well, it was more like a ten minutes walk.

So there I was, walking down the street, aiming roughly where I think the bookstore was at. I reached a cross junction, turned left and walk straight, expecting to see a tall white building which is supposed to be where the store was at. I saw none. I was lost.

Proverbs 3

6In all your ways acknowledge him,
and he will make straight your paths.

In everything, we acknowledge God. Without God, we are nothing, we will be unable to accomplish anything on our own. When we face difficulties in journey of life, we call out to God through prayer, through consultation of the Bible for advice, and He will guide us in His sovereign direction. In this Proverbs verse, the path in its original context leans heavily towards the moral quality of one life's path, However, this can also refer to our journey of life with a goal in sight, just as Apostle Paul puts it in Philippians 3.

^"13Brothers, I do not consider that I have made it my own. But one thing I do: forgetting what lies behind and straining forward to what lies ahead, ¹⁴I press on toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus. ¹⁵Let those of us who are mature think this way, and if in anything you think otherwise, God will reveal that also to you. ¹⁶Only let us hold true to what we have attained."

I knew I was lost. In my heart, I commented 'uhm, God, a little help here?' And right at that moment, a middle age man, a young man and woman passed by me a few metres ahead, turning towards the direction of the MRT. They were holding on to plastic bags labelled prominently 'SKS Books Warehouse'. Ah, my small cry for guidance has came to fruit! I approached them for directions and they gladly gave it.

Proverbs 16

¹The plans of the heart belong to man,
but the answer of the tongue is from the LORD.

9 The heart of man plans his way,
but the LORD establishes his steps.

The comparison between the plans of a man's heart and the sovereign direction of the Lord unifies verse 1 to 9. Verses 2 to 8 concentrate on the importance of the heart-action connection. For what purpose did I take this action? Does it please God? Does it go against God? The heart of a man plans his way but, ultimately, the man can go wrong for he is flawed and thus the Lord establishes his step in the right direction. One famous example we can think of is Jonah, called by the Lord to warn the city of Nineveh. We know that he refuses, his heart pestered him to escape from his duty and he did but God eventually, with the use of a big fish/whale established Jonah direction, that is, to warn the city of Nineveh of their evil deeds.

I had planned ahead, with the earnest desire to purchase the study bible, ESV version so that I may study the Word of God even in more detail, reserved ahead lest it ran out of stock, checked out the location on the map and yet there I was, lost. This shows that we can plan, we can think ahead and yet ultimately, the Lord is the one who will guide us for He is always with us.