A Reliable Guide

Introduction:

Welcome my friend,

Today, we continue our series on getting it right this new year, with this discussion themed on the basis of travel guidance; as we look to journey the entire year successfully.

So let's immediately delve into it.

As we most likely have experienced in our travels, knowing the destination we're headed to is one thing, and knowing how to get there is another.

Which is a good reason why we employ a map to help us navigate through it when we can't.

However, if there's one thing better than a map at that, it's a tour guide; and in this conversation we'd be examining some of those benefits that places it well above a map.

The aim of this is to relate them to our ambitions for the new year and how we can thoroughly be led rightly to each of the successes, dreams or goals we've planned to arrive at.

Discussion:

A tour guide is a person that leads around visitors or other such persons that are new to a location, showing them places of interest and importance as they get acquainted with their environment.

This means that unlike the map that tells just the way around the location, the tour guide has more information including things like: alternative routes, the best time to move, the dangers that can arise from using a particular route and so on.

So while a map can come handy in the absence of a tour guide, it's not necessarily an adequate substitute for it because of these aforementioned reasons.

■ Examining Key Roles Of The Tour Guide 

Stepping into the new year, we usually have our plans which are mostly based on our set goals and dreams.

This is what we consider as our means of achieving them.

So for us, the goal is the destination with our good planning and preparation serving as the map.

This makes us seemingly ready for the journey at hand but because many things in life are out of our control, having a plan alone, just like having a map alone may not be enough.

So let me introduce you to a tour guide, well experienced, capable and most importantly willing to lead us to our destination.

He's God, our heavenly father and friend; and once we let Him in on our journey, we can be well assured of;

▪︎ Guidance 

A map can tell a destination but the tour guide knows where the dangers might be on the way and the safest way to navigate through it.

Most times our plans end in disappointment because we never really anticipated the risk involved in them, simply expecting things to go smoothly based on the information we have at hand.

Yet how many times have we been wrong?

God gives us the discernment to make good life choices and decisions, helping us on what businesses to avoid and pointing us to which ones best suit His plans for our life.

We're all skilled differently and sometimes our failure comes from doing things we're not properly equipped to do; simply because we feel we're already too deep to quit or can force our way to success with more hard work and dedication.

Yet this may not always be the case.

Sometimes quitting is a detour and a step back to enable us venture into our area of strength and endless possibilities.

▪︎ Protection 

Time heals the pain of disappointment when we realize that the things we wanted most wouldn't have been good for us.

Some of us have been hurt deeply by losing a relationship with someone we love because we can't imagine life without them.

Other times, it's missing out on a big opportunity we sincerely thought would change our lives.

Still over time, we realize that it was just God protecting us from eventual harm; a pain and suffering much more terrible than what we felt from the loss.

What's even better?

He replaces it with His perfect gift, so that we're so convinced that it was from Him.

It's like hearing so much about a particular location without knowing that it may not be suited for us due to adverse weather conditions or other such factors.

Then our tour guide, knowing better, redirects us to somewhere else.

Here we're reminded that redirection from God is usually for our own protection.

▪︎ Optimal Experience 

God's purpose for us is unique to each individual and beats every of our best imaginations and intentions for our lives.

He does for us exceedingly and above all that we can ever want.

Which makes His lead freer than it's limiting.

Most of us don't want to trust God because we're unwilling to let go of what our human mind has envisioned is best for us.

Yet every time we have trusted Him, our situations end up better than whatever we wanted.

In this we learn that just as a guest might see from the map that there are different restaurants, it's the tour guide that knows where the best meals are sold.

Which makes following His lead the optimal experience, and also the most cost effective solution.

So rather than wait till we learn painfully from a bad experience before coming back to God, we can save ourselves the cost of this disobedience by following His lead from the onset.

▪︎ Ease 

Since some of these goals are new experiences to us, it's well expected for us to struggle a bit.

This is completely normal.

However, our tour guide eases these struggles helping us enjoy the experience without more challenges than we can bear.

For instance, practically, due to being familiar with the language or people there, having a tour guide makes the journey easier, helping the guest interact better with the locals in an unfamiliar surrounding.

In the same way, God by virtue of being all knowing, is familiar with everything we're going to experience on our way to achieving successes that we haven't experienced before.

Truth is, as we journey through the year, it'd be expected that we encounter unfamiliar circumstances or obstacles on our way, testing us in ways that we have never been in the past.

This is the price of a new level.

Yet with God right there on our side, they'd eventually disappear because when God says; “move it's done!” He speaks to our problems in a language they understand.

The language of victory and dominion.

■ Examining The Travellers Role 

Regardless of how good a tour guide is, or how willing he is to help, nothing happens until the traveller lets it; by making the request for a guide.

In the same way, God can't force us to get involved in our lives.

So even when He does, we still have our own role to play in order to make the journey a successful experience.

Firstly, we must trust that our guide is good enough to direct us, so that we're ready to listen and obey him, following his lead.

In the absence of this, we make his presence of little impact and importance since we end up making the same mistakes he's there to let us avoid.

This is what we do when we half-heartedly invite God into our business.

When we're choosy about the aspects of our lives we let Him into, we end up blaming Him for the consequences of our own poor decisions and actions.

To have a good experience, we need to let Him in on everything we do, holding back nothing; because we know that He's better equipped and well experienced than we can ever be.

Who else can help us navigate through life better than the one who gave it to us?

■ Summary:

As believers we have the privilege of having a tour guide that can lead us through anything in life.

So that while others look at their maps trying to figure it all out by themselves, we can enjoy the services of our expert tour guide.

The one who leads us through life in a way that makes it a beautiful journey, so that we can arrive at our destination unscathed.

What better security and confidence than knowing that the most powerful being is our travel companion?

Master Apprentice.

www.x.com/truekingmaker