Lead, Guide and Direct

Rom 8:14 "For as many as are led by the Spirit of God, these are sons of God."

I remember when I was a kid listening to godly people pray at church. Many times they would say: “Lord, please lead, guide and direct us.” I didn’t think anything of it at the time. I just thought that this is how people prayed.

Several years later I heard others criticize this prayer saying that it was redundant. You don’t have to ask God to guide or direct you if He is leading you. I think that whoever said this was just trying to get us to think about how we pray and not just string words together. In retrospect, however, I am thinking that these godly people were not just stringing words together. They were actually praying Biblically for when you look up the word “led” from this verse it means: “lead, guide, direct”. It means taking hold of a person and bringing them to a location.

I think of when my kids needed to go somewhere when they were little. They would want to go one way and I knew that they needed to go another way, so what did I do? I took hold of their hand and brought them to the place that they needed to be.

This is what this verse is all about. Allowing God to take us by the hand and bring us to the place we need to be. Seeing that the Spirit of God can take the circumstances of our life, or that He can take His word to show us what we need to do, or He can speak to us with that still small voice and we know it is Him. When this happens, we know that we are His children. He is leading us. He is guiding us. He is directing us. He has not left us alone to flounder and guess. He has not said to us: “OK. I have relationship with you so you are on your own now.” No, he is that Father who takes us by the hand and leads us to the place we need to be.

The fact that this occurs solidifies the fact that we know Him. That His Spirit dwells in us. “But you are not in the flesh but in the Spirit, if indeed the Spirit of God dwells in you. Now if anyone does not have the Spirit of Christ, he is not His. (v9)

This is the kicker: Does God lead, guide and direct me? Have I seen Him take me by the hand? If so, I am His. I know Him. I have a relationship with Him. On the flip side, if this does not happen, if I don’t experience this I need to check to see if I am in His family.

Thank God for the Spirit of God who gives us the assurance that we are His.