Where am I Going?

By Cheri Cowell –

The first thing I do when I’m going on a trip is decide where I want to go. Come on, you might be saying. That is obvious. I wish it had been more obvious or I wouldn’t have wasted so much of my life trying to go somewhere I didn’t really want to go. I didn’t understand that if my ladder were leaning against the wrong wall, I wouldn’t be where I wanted to be when I got to the top. It wasn’t until recently that I began to ponder the real questions of where I wanted to go. Who did I want to be when I got there? What did my life stand for? Do I have a bigger purpose?

In order for us to prepare for the Advent journey we are taking on our journey to Christmas, we need to decide where we want to end up.

Zechariah lived in Judea at the time of Jesus birth. He and his wife Elizabeth lived an obedient life. They loved God with all their hearts and served Him in the Temple. The Bible calls them “upright in the sight of God.” However, all was not perfect in their lives. They were childless, which in those days was a disgrace. I’m sure they asked the same questions you and I do about what their lives stood for, where they going, and what it all meant? While they wondered, they never wavered in their devotion to God and their desire to be all God wanted them to be. So, when God searched the earth for the parents of John the Baptist, the one who would prepare “the way” for Jesus, He found them…Pure, willing, obedient, and humble.

“In the time of Herod king of Judea there was a priest named Zechariah, who belonged to the priestly division of Abijah; his wife Elizabeth was also a descendant of Aaron.  Both of them were righteous in the sight of God, observing all the Lord’s commands and decrees blamelessly” (Luke 1:5-6 NIV).

PRAYER: This is my prayer; that when God combs the earth looking for the next vessel to do His work in His world, He will find me “upright in the sight of God.”

THOUGHT: What path do you have your life on? What wall is your ladder leaning against? Ask God to help you make Him become your purpose.