God's Mysteries ~ Our Discipline and Direction

I was encouraged by reading this piece this morning.  The Lord has clear plans for our lives - blessings, growing experiences, and the exact purpose He created each of us to serve Him in.  We must trust Him always in and for all things.

"Trust in the LORD with all thine heart; and lean not unto thine own understanding.

In all thy ways acknowledge him, and he shall direct thy paths."

~ Proverbs 3:5-6 ~

"Thy way is in the sea, and thy path in the great waters, and thy footsteps are not known."

- Psalm 77:19 -

"And the sea appears to be the most trackless of worlds!  The sea is the very symbol of mystery, the grim dwelling-house of innumerable things that have been lost.  But God's way moves here and there across this trackless wild.  God is never lost among our mysteries.  He knows His way about.  When we are bewildered He sees the road, and He sees the end even from the beginning.  Even the sea, in every part of it, is the Lord's highway.  When His way is in the sea we cannot trace it.  Mystery is part of our appointed discipline.  Uncertainty is to prepare us for a deeper assurance.  The spirit of questioning is one of the ordained means of growth.  And so the bewildering sea is our friend, as some day we shall understand.  We love to 'lie down in green pastures,' and to be led 'beside the still waters,' and God gives us our share of this nourishing rest.  But we need the mysterious sea, the overwhelming experience, the floods of sorrows which we cannot explain.  If we had no sea we should never become robust.  We should remain weaklings to the end of our days.
God takes us out into the deeps.  But His way is in the sea.  He knows the haven, He knows the track, and we shall arrive!"  - J. H. Jowett (from My Daily Meditation, 1914)

"In his early days of learning the ways of the sea an old seaman tells this story on himself.  When out in a boat by himself, he got lost several times.  He was told to use his compass.  Out into the water he went again.  He soon got lost and lay overnight as usual.  Upon being found he was asked why he did not use his compass.  He said he did not dare to.  He wished to go north, and he "Tried hard to make the thing go north, but it wasn't any use; 'twould shake, shake, right around, and point southeast every time."  Many people fail to go the right direction on the sea of life for the very same reason of the mishap which befell our seaman - thy are afraid to take the Captain at His Word and follow the direction in which He points." - M. Taylor
~Streams in the Desert, Volume 2, May 24th

~Brittany