If your car doesn’t have a built-in GPS, your smart phone probably does. It’s your map or guidance system (to keep you on the right course). And now that paper maps are a thing of the past, we need a GPS. Why? Because it’s easy to get lost on our own. In other words, we need directions and help.
Life is like this too.
The Bible says, “This hope we have as an anchor of the soul, both sure and steadfast…” (Hebrews 6:19). Much like your GPS, it’s reassuring to know there’s something holding us steady because it’s scary to realize you’ve drifted off course in uncharted waters.
Another example I’ve used many times is the 16th inch. It’s the smallest part on your ruler and such a good visual of why people can end up in left field completely off-course. When used to measure a ground foundation, a 16th inch error can’t be seen with the naked eye— but build a sky scraper and the error will show up on the 2nd, 3rd, or 4th floor. This is because that little bit of error multiplied over and over is a problem.
The lack of a guidance system or an anchor in life is the same. It slowly leads us away (causes us to drift) from God’s Truth.
The Truth I’m referring to is righteousness.
It’s a big-sounding Bible word packed full of things we need. I often compare it to my 50lb suitcase I carry to the airport when I fly. I promise I need everything in it! In the same way, understanding righteousness is about unpacking that suitcase (maybe for the first time) and finding things you didn’t know God did for you or gave you, or even how He sees you.
But here’s the challenge: how do you see yourself? How we view ourselves will always have a greater impact on our lives than how we see God. In fact, Earnest Holmes said, “Life is a mirror and will reflect back to the thinker what he thinks into it.”
With the best of intentions, our friends and family can tell us how wonderful and loved we are. They can even tell us how much God loves us. But unless we believe it for ourselves, a poor self image can actually squelch dreams, mask truth, and redefine destinies.
Proverbs 23:7 says, “For as he thinks [calculates] in his heart, so is he.” So what are you thinking? Because that’s your GPS.
The Bible says, ” …let God transform you into a new person by changing the way you think“ (Romans 12:2, NLT). In other words, transformation isn’t automatic at salvation. And sadly, there are many people who veered off-course simply because the enemy tricked them into believing everything would be rosy and perfect after giving their heart to Jesus. But it’s not that simple.
Your spirit was born-again at salvation —which means you received that big ‘ole suitcase full of eternal life, the spirit of God, and all the benefits of a life in Christ! But after salvation, your spirit has to switch the natural dominion from your soul (your mind, will, and emotions) to God’s Truth. Our soul was not born-again. It must be renewed.
And here’s the top reasons why people get off-course: (1) They’re not born-again so they have no guidance system. (2) They didn’t receive Christ until much later in life so there’s a lot of reprogramming necessary. Or (3) they were introduced to religion instead of relationship and fell for the lie that you have to earn God’s favor.
Really the list could go on and on… my point is, the lack of a guidance system is a common problem. It doesn’t matter who you are or what you’ve done. It’s not a gender problem, or a race problem, or a status problem — it’s a believer problem. Satan does NOT want you to know who you are in Christ!
He doesn’t want you to live by God’s guidance system. He doesn’t want you to have an anchor that will hold you steady no matter what he throws your way. In fact, one of the hardest lessons I ever learned was that Satan’s best-laid plan has always been for me to destroy myself first. And that’s easy to do when there’s no GPS, no anchor, no Truth– no understanding of righteousness.
The devil simply targets our insecurities and then laughs at our self-destruction.
BUT GOD…
Righteousness is God’s “right” system. You and I need it. And we need to know more about it.
