Continual Guidance

Uv 525/10,000 Isaiah 58 v 11 Continual guidance And the Lord shall guide thee continually, and satisfy thy soul in drought, and make fat thy bones:and thou shalt be like a watered garden, and like a spring of water, whose waters never fail This uni-verse is a wonderful promise of continual guidance. The Lord is omnipotent, omnipresent and omniscient. But, no word has been found in the English language to describe His “ all-loving” nature. His “ agape love” causes Him to guide us continually. He tells us in which paths we should travel, which turning to take, to the left or to the right in the journey of life. He even straightens the paths in which we walk. A shepherd uses his crook to pull the straying sheep back from moving away from the flock. Similarly, He often gently pulls us back to Him as we attempt to stray away from the paths and ways He is leading us on. He is the Managing Director of our lives. He will guide us into all truths. He satisfies our soul or our inner being in times of scarcity. He nourishes our “ spiritual bones” or the framework of our lives with His Word. We will be “ fat” or faithful, available and teachable. We will be like a watered garden, an oasis in the desert. A watered garden will have a variety of plants growing in it, bearing a variety of foliage, flowers, fruits and vegetables. The flowers will be used for decoration,some of the leaves will be useful for nourishment, some for healing. The fruits will be delightful even to look at. The fruits are meant for satisfying our hunger and for our enjoyment. A watered garden will also be fenced and protected against wild animals and other creatures that can destroy the plants so carefully nurtured. The spirits of darkness can neither inhabit nor inhibit us. The angels surround us like “Mahamayim” or a camp of angels. The links of the fencing are tight together so that the foxes of cunning and deceit cannot enter the garden. We will be like an eternal spring of life. A river or a lake or a stream can dry up but the water of a spring never dries up. Rivers of living water will flow from our hearts and minds that will never dry up. The contrast or opposite image often drives home the sense of reality into us. The contrast is that of a person who is neither faithful , available or teachable. As he is not faithful, there is no wisdom or guidance available from the Lord and Giver of life. He makes huge blunders from which he or she cannot recover. Such a person cannot avail of the multitude of mercies available with the Lord. He becomes so set in his ways that he is not teachable. He perishes in his follies, his misery and his utter helplessness. Prateep V Philip