Under the cloud

For I do not want you to be ignorant of the fact, brothers, that our forefathers were all under the cloud and that they passed through the sea.                        1 Cor. 10.1

Paul is reminding us that the Israelites “under the cloud” were under God’s leadership and guidance and He did not fail them. He successfully led them through the sea.

Paul says further:

They all ate the same spiritual food and drank the same spiritual drink; for they drank from the spiritual rock that accompanied them, and that rock was Christ.    (1 Cor. 10.3,4)

The choice is there for us. If we elect to live under the cloud of God’s leadership and guidance He will not fail us. We can choose to drink from the rock that is Christ and to eat the spiritual food that comes from Him.

This is a further reminder to me. Yet again I am enjoined to look only to God, to trust Him completely, and allow Him to lead me. A further Scripture comes to mind:

Trust in the LORD with all your heart

and lean not on your own understanding;

in all your ways acknowledge him,

and he will make your paths straight.     (Prov.3.5,6)

 This is indeed for me. I can acknowledge the limitations of my own understanding yet it is often difficult to let go. This is how I think. My reaction is often closely tied in to my thinking. But trust looks for me to react to God and not to my own thinking. How do I grow in trusting God? Maybe the aid is in the verse above – acknowledge God in all your ways. This sounds like a good starting place to me. If I first acknowledge God in all things, then seek His way and believe that He is leading me and guiding me, He might just lead and guide me to the place of trusting him with all my heart. Hallelujah! Praise God.

Lord God,

I thank You for Your Word which is a lamp to my feet and a light for my path.

I sense that You are surely leading me and guiding me. I want to follow You. I want to submit to, and fulfil, Your full and perfect will for my life. I ask You to forgive me the weakness of trying to gain my own understanding of ways to work out my path and progress in You. I ask You to forgive me for seeking to lean on my own understanding. I ask You to forgive me and to release me. Help me, Lord, to place my full trust in You.

I look for the cloud of Your covering in all that I do. I rejoice in Christ my Saviour. I drink from the spiritual rock that is Him. I eat of the bread of life that He gives. I pray for closeness with You today. I come near to You and pray that You will come near to me.               Amen.