I want you to think for a moment when you are driving and suddenly you begin seeing signs saying detour up ahead. The signs are usually black and orange. We see them and get frustrated, maybe you are in a hurry, or you do not want the hassle of making a detour. Changing your route is not one of your things to do on that day. Nonetheless, you still end up having to make that detour. How about this you are coming onto the interstate and there is a yield sign, telling you to yield to oncoming traffic. You slow down, take a moment, and ease into the traffic. Life is like that. There are many detours and yield signs along the way. There are many exits, leading into different directions. You are trying to decide which way to go. Should I take this exit, or should I wait and take the next one? Is it time in my life to make this move or should I wait? You are driving through the highway of life. How you respond to those detours and yield signs dictates your life.
The detours and yield signs are from the Holy Spirit. They are from God. He is trying to stop you from making a decision that could not be favorable for you. Such as those times when you kept choosing the wrong man. Or the time you married someone you knew you should not marry but you did anyway. Even though you knew you were not equally yoked. Or the time you charged your credit card one more time even though, you knew you were struggling financially. And you had just called on God to get you out of financial debt, but you still did not learn your lesson. God places yield signs and detours to block you from doing the wrong thing. And because you did not heed the warnings, you are experiencing problems in life. Oh, there are so many more I could lay out for you. But I believe you can think of a few of your own. The point is that God is trying to stop you from doing something you should not do. God is trying to re-route you on a journey through the highway of life.
Let’s look at it this way. You are familiar with a navigation system. Most automobiles have them or people may use an app on their phone to give them directional guidance. Your navigational system is the Mighty Word of God, the Bible. Have you ever been in the car with someone and they are driving? The driver is not sure which way to go. Or maybe they turn down the wrong street and must turn around and go back. You ask them if they looked up the address before you left. They respond with “No”. They assume they know how to get to the destination. You have the navigational system for a reason. You have the app on your phone for a reason. You have the Mighty Word of God…USE IT! That is your navigational system.
To be able to navigate your way through the highway of life. You must read your Bible. You must read it every day. You must meditate on the Word and hide it in your heart. You must make it a part of your life because it is the bread of life. John 1:1 says, “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God”. He is the bread of life. You do not have to worry about detours. When you eat upon His Word, you do not have to worry about yield signs coming your way. When you eat upon His Word, you do not have to worry about where your next meal is coming from. When you eat upon His Word you do not have to worry about how you will pay the rent this month. When you eat upon His Word you do not have to worry about living paycheck to paycheck. When you eat upon His Word, you do not have to worry about the changes at your job. Because God will make a way. God has got you. Hold Him to His promises. Hold Him to His Word. But if you do not feast upon His Word then you do not know what those promises are.
When God laid this message on my heart, he wanted to point out He loves you and He wants the best for you. God knows we are going to make mistakes. God knows we will mess up and not get it quite right. He knew everything that would happen in our lives before we were born. But instead of taking heed of the detour or the yield signs we want to go in the direction that feels good to us. We want to make our own decisions and figure it out ourselves. Proverbs 3:5 and 6 says “5 Trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding; 6 in all your ways acknowledge Him, and He will direct your paths.” That is what we have a hard time doing, trusting the Lord. He tells us in His mighty Word to trust Him. And if you do not read His Word some of us, still find it hard to trust Him. We want to take the faster route. We want to take the path that feels good to us. We want to take the route that makes us look good. We want to listen to everyone else’s directions instead of our Heavenly Father’s instructions. But we find it so hard to do. It is just like when we were growing up. We did not want to do what our parents told us to do. We did not want to follow their instructions. We wanted to do our own thing. Did you know that God gives them directions? And sometimes God uses our parents to place the detours and yield signs out to stop us from going down the wrong path. God only wants the best for us.
I always say that those detours and yield signs are like my conscience guiding me. It is helping me on this journey through the highway of life. It is like the Walt Disney story about Pinocchio. In the story, Pinocchio is given a conscience to help guide his way through life. There were times when Pinocchio did not listen to his conscience, he would get into trouble. We have a conscience to guide us as well. Unfortunately, we do not listen. Our conscience is the Holy Spirit. Our conscience would tell us to go left, and we will go right instead. And instead of getting to our destination on time the route we took had construction going on and now we are late for wherever we needed to be. It is just that simple. By making our own choices in life we choose to take a detour simply because we don’t want to do what is hard. We want to do the easy thing. God never said it would be easy. But if you trust Him and lean unto Him, He will help you bear your burdens. He will take care of you. The highway of life has curves and turns we will have to maneuver. There will be detours and yield signs along the way. A decision will have to be made. If you eat upon His Word, the decision will be easy. Navigate your way through your highway of life eating upon His Mighty Word.
