Navigating Life: In Need of Direction and Rescue
With GPS apps now a standard feature on mobile devices and vehicles, most of us have thrown away paper maps and road atlases that were once stashed in glove boxes or under car seats. On long road trips my wife still loves using paper maps to get a big-picture view of where we are at any given moment, while I use a maps app connected to our dashboard monitor. There was a time not too long ago—before GPS—when people had to rely on maps to guide them to where we wanted to go. Unfortunately, those maps had limitations that could sometimes severely impact travel. Road closures, detours, construction zones, and new routes often made maps unusable, so drivers then had to rely on road signs, which could also be confusing. As a last resort, we had stop to ask for directions. This meant swallowing our pride as we had to admit we didn’t know where we were and how to get to where we needed to go. Sometimes we were given good directions, and other times not so much.
There are also times when language is a barrier. My wife and I once got VERY lost in South Korea on what we thought was a train to the Incheon International airport. Instead, we accidentally boarded a train going to the city of Incheon, which was a long way from the airport! Knowing very little Korean, we asked for help. One man, in broken English, pointed us to get off at the next raised platform and take the next train going the other way. When we got on that train, we soon realized it was taking us even farther off course!
Now we needed more than directions, we needed rescue. In desperation, we prayed and asked God to help us. One young woman heard us and offered—in English —to help. At the next city she escorted us off the train, led us up some stairs, across the street, then down another set of stairs to a different set of tracks. She told us to go 8 stations down and then wait there for the next express train to the Incheon airport. We followed her instructions and a couple hours later arrived at the airport. I still think about that woman and thank God for this person who was our angel on the Korean rail system.
There are times when we feel like our personal GPS for life has stopped working, all our maps are wrong, and the advice we’ve been given has led us even further off course. Add a difficult health diagnosis, a broken relationship, the loss of a job, financial turmoil, even spiritual or physical abuse—and it can seem like we’re stuck on a train heading straight toward a dark and frightening place.
At the risk of sounding over simplistic, the first thing to do is— from your heart— humbly and sincerely ask for God’s direction and deliverance. My friend, no matter what you’ve done or where you are today, it’s okay to ask God to rescue you— He is willing and able to do this. I have prayed this prayer and know of many, many people who cried out to God in their troubles, and He brought them safely through to a new and bright future.
God will give us direction if and when we allow Him to do so. God can intervene to rescue us in ways beyond our human comprehension. Often, He accomplishes this by bringing people into our path. I have found that laying down my pride and relying on God and the help of others He puts before me, are essential to experiencing His healing, restoration, and leading.
The prayer of rescue is found many times and places in the Bible. Here is two attributed to David:
“[God] Turn to me and be gracious to me,
for I am lonely and afflicted.
Relieve the troubles of my heart
and free me from my anguish….
Look on my affliction and my distress
and take away all my sins.
Guard my life and rescue me;
do not let me be put to shame, for I take refuge in you. “
(From Psalm 25)
“Reach down your hand from on high;
deliver me and rescue me from the mighty waters…”
(From Psalm 144)
I am convinced that God’s desire is not only to rescue us out of trouble, but also into a restored, intimate, forever experience of His Presence. Through Jesus Christ each of us can be re-integrated with God now and for always. A few years ago, I composed and recorded a song entitled “Rescue Me” with the Namesake Band. I was inspired by those Psalms and other rescue prayers in the Bible. I hope it encourages you to cry out to God when you’re in distress or trouble, because He hears and cares for you.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hk9U7Xto5z0
God hears and will answer you when you call to Him. He deeply wants to deliver you not only out of your current situation, but into His bright future and eternity.
God bless you!
Chris Atkins