The Gospel Compass

There are days when you just can’t figure out where you went wrong.

 

You can’t determine how you got there or how to get back to where you were.

You can be going along just fine and suddenly find yourself lost in some cave of despair. 

Maybe that never happens to you.  Maybe it’s just me. 

But in any case, maybe you realize you need a compass.

Because life is full of places that you can just plain fall right off the map.

And when you fall off the map, the only way back is with a compass.

A compass that reads life and gives faithful directions.  And maybe what you need in that moment is just some deep down, soul-settling truth, for your True North.  Maybe what you need is to stop and first believe that your compass reads it right. 

Because you can’t follow what you really don’t believe is leading you home.

And if you don’t trust your compass, and you’re lost in some dark place, where will you turn?

So sometimes you just have to stop, take a deep breath, and believe.

And when your belief is shaken, sometimes you have to get out the compass and read it again and again and choose to believe it leads straight home.

So, I get out the Living Word and I read it and I write it and I confess it and I pray it into my heart until belief begins blooming again.

 

Because the Gospel of Jesus, it isn’t just for the day you got saved.

This Good-news, it is the best news, the only news we need for our everyday. 

Because we aren’t just saints who used to need a Savior, we are sinners who have been redeemed, who are being redeemed, and who need a Savior every day.  We need to remember every day the grace that made us free and the grace that makes us free today. 

And it isn’t because we do good things. Because really, even on our best days, we fall so short of holy.  We will never be that on our own.  But in Christ, we are the righteousness of God.  We get to wear His righteousness instead of our filth.  And when we remember the grace that saved us, it makes us thankful, here, now, today, even for the struggles.

Even for the dark days, the hard days.  Because the hard days are accomplishing God’s gospel purposes to make me more like Jesus. 

When we believe the truth, it begins to change us. 

When we see the grace that we have been given, and trust His love for us, then we can embrace even the hardest trials because we know that our heavenly Father loves us.  And this love for us is going to work all things together for our good.  Romans 8:28

It doesn’t mean that it will always feel good.  Carrying a cross is painful.  Dying daily is going to hurt.  But this is what we are called to.  But in each dying we find a richer, fuller life.

And it is in the dying, that we are most identifying with Christ in his suffering and death.

And it is in the dying that we become more like him. 

Let this same attitude be in you which was also in Christ Jesus…who became obedient to death, even death on a cross. Phillipians 2

And so we can say, thank you.  Even for the hardships.  Because we know that God is using them to make us more like Him.  He is using them to display His glory.  And we can rest assured that this death of us is not the end, but only the beginning of a deeper life, a fuller life, a life made more beautiful by the cross.

Today, if you feel like you’ve fallen off the map, there is one way back home.  Trust in the gospel of God’s grace again.  Remember His great love poured out for you in that cross.  Believe that all He promises, He will do in you.  And watch your faith rise again.