Well Worn Paths

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Strength for today is mine all the way, And all I need for tomorrow; My Lord knows the way thru the wilderness - All I have to do is follow!

There was a day, or two, or perhaps seventy-eight of them, not too very long ago, when the thoughts that I was thinking were not reliable. I couldn't trust my own heart. My brain was scrambled. My heart is deceitful and my thoughts aren't God's, even on a good day. And my days were not good. There were not a lot of deep thoughts going on in there. I was in crisis. I was in the midst of a storm, and I couldn't function. I considered it a good day if I had successfully made iced tea. During the early days of trial or grief, you find yourself unable to think many new thoughts. Your ability to reason goes silent. Your intellect goes dumb. You'd better have some deep roots in the Lord to carry you through those days. You will need to depend on Him. You'll need to draw from a relationship already established, and follow paths already well worn. In other words, be prepared. Have a relationship with the Lord up and running and ready to go. Later, God will teach you new things. Truths that you could have only learned through that trial or grief. Life changing things. I need to start a list of the things that I've learned. But before I could get there, God had to get me through just one more day. Anyway, one of those auto-thoughts that would come to the surface every single day were the words to this little song that I had sung with so many children throughout the years. School kids, junior church kids, teenage kids, bus kids, my own kids; a song sung a thousand times. And then, just when I needed it, it was there. I was in crisis and I could not think. But God would give me this song, and I'd sing it all day long. Day after day the same, God would bring it to mind. Every word, again and again. Each time making me stronger. God knows. Always! The song comes from Scripture. You know those are the ones that I love. "But God led the people about, through the way of the wilderness of the Red sea: and the children of Israel went up harnessed out of the land of Egypt." ~Exodus 13:18 I love this one, too, about following: "He (Hezekiah) trusted in the Lord God of Israel...For he clave to the Lord, and departed not from following him, but kept his commandments, which the Lord commanded Moses. And the Lord was with him; and he prospered whithersoever he went forth." ~2 Kings 18:5-7 That's what I wanted. But my brain wouldn't work. God led me in song until He got me through those dreadful early days. And when it was finished and I was empty, He had something to work with and He taught me new things. Things about God's strength, and not my own. Things about following without question. His strength being made perfect in my weakness. Big doings. But first, I sang.

My Lord knows the way thru the wilderness - All I have to do is follow!

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