Trace

This is a repeat devotional from 02-29-08

I have, I know, about ten pair of reading glasses floating around my house. And each time I come to sit at my desk, I scan the area to find a pair. Sometimes I find a pair, and sometimes I have to go roaming through the house and gather the ones I have dispersed. Today I was at the gathering point. Kind of like Hansel and Gretel...I have left a trail behind and as I retrace my steps, there I find a pair of glasses.....first one pair, then two and pretty soon, they are all back in their place...my desk. But I had to go on a search, and bring them back to where they belonged.

Tracing steps....going back to a place we have already been to retrieve something that we have already been given. Throughout each day we are sprinkled with tidbits of wisdom. We tuck them away, and then at one point, the time will come when a situation calls for a retrieval of that wisdom. We remember hearing it, but the information isn't clear, so we go back in our mind vault a little further and try to think of where we were when we heard it and who said it. That information would help it to gain proper validity and would possibly clear away some of the foggy recollect. Then we remember...and the thought comes to life and is able, just as we imagined, to be beneficial in helping us sort out a situation.

Those helpful tidbits of wisdom are thoughts that God has allowed us to receive and retrieve. He is the one who pops those thoughts into our heads...but we seldom give Him the credit for His deliberate attempt to guide us. We use them though, without giving God the deserved credit, in coping, in adjusting, in managing, in maintaining, in connecting, and in deciding life's directions. Just think a minute ....trace back to the time when you knew, really knew that God was a reality? Trace back to a time when you actually knew that God's hand was the only possible explanation for something that had been accomplished. Trace back to a time when you were so filled with despair that you weren't sure you could live through it. God was there....and you did get through it. Or you were in a hopeless tangle of emotions through events that you had gotten yourself in...God helped you untangle the mess. He was there.

It is important for us to go back...and retrace our steps and see what God has given us that we might have misplaced or left behind. Gather those truths back up and put them confidently back where they belong which is in your heart. We get going fast and what we carry in our heads often times causes us to abandon some of the really worthy realities that are paramount for a healthy attitude and existence. Realities about what God has done, and is doing now and will do forever. Those are the substantial, full of promise
full of hope foundations that everything else should sit upon....but we lay them down, and get sidetracked and worry about things that have no real grit.

Take a look back at your life....where have you unconsciously laid down a vital piece of wisdom....maybe it was what God taught you through someone else, maybe it was a quote in a book, or a truth from the bible. Maybe it was a reality about yourself that you were working on for a while and it has slipped back in to being part of your habit....or maybe you have laid down the basic truth that God loves you more than you could possibly imagine. He has made a way through His son for you to live eternally with HIm in His Heavenly paradise. God is good ....that is a vital piece of wisdom.....and he is control and will make good out of something that we see as chaos or uncertainty or despair. God will never leave us even if we try to leave Him. God keeps promises....God is faithful.

Psalm 143:5
I remember the days of long ago; I meditate on all your works and consider what your hands have done.

Retrace your steps...especially when your heart is heavy and your mind is unclear. Gather up the truths of God and place them back where they rightfully belong....in your very soul! It is important to look back sometimes at where we have been....for sometimes along our way we have gotten off track and we sometimes can see things clearer in hindsight. Once things are back where they are suppose to be...then we again can move on with confidence and security and a clarity because we will be looking at life through the tidbits of wisdom that God has given us to retrieve.

Dear Lord, We do get going fast and tend to lay down tidbits of wisdom that you have given us. They have been graciously given to help me through a situation and I have carelessly and unconsciously abandoned them. Help me to go back and retrieve those truths and use them for the benefit of living the life that you have given me ....unto your glory. Amen

Praise God wherever you are or whatever situation he has allowed you to be in...for His glory will shine through.

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