Navigating with God

I thought of this today as I was driving to work and it, once again, brought up a whole new bunch of ideas and comparisons.
In actual fact, it is amazing how close they are.
How much in common is your little GPS system in your car or cellphone and God. Sounds like a really weird comparison, but bear with me here...

We want to go somewhere, but we have no idea where the place is or how long it will take or in what direction to go in. So we plug the address into our GPS and in a few seconds, we are told where to go. Basically we rely totally on this device or the mapping software in it.
Without this, we would be totally lost, turning this way and that to figure out where we are moving. Sometimes we will stop somewhere and ask someone else for directions.

Doesn't this resemble what our relationship with God should be like?
Totally relying on Him on where to go in our lives, which direction to turn, listening for His voice all the time, waiting for the next 'instruction'?

You make a mistake, you miss a turning and now you are off course! I don't know about you, but my GPS either instructs me to take a U-Turn where possible or it directs me along another route to get to my destination.
Doesn't our loving God do the same.....When we fall off course, His Spirit prompts us to rejoin our journey or to make a U-turn from the direction we were going and get back onto course with our journey with God.
If we have gone too far, He will take us along the next route to get back on course. Often this alternate route is longer, but its because we made the mistake of not listening and now we have to take a little longer to get back to where we should be going.

Sometimes I can relate that GPS voice to Gods voice. Always warning of possible danger. Before you are about to turn, the voice warns you, warns you, warns you...100 metres, 50 metres, 10 metres etc...
If you come close to a speed bump/boggle, you are warned to be careful and slow down.
The Spirit does the same, when you get close to danger or begin to sin, the Spirit whispers and warns you of impending danger.
One thing to understand here though, is notice that the Spirit of God doesn't stop you. Same as the GPS, it doesn't stop the car for you. You are free to go in any direction you wish, but the voice will just warn you. It will try to turn you back on course.

God already knows our lives. He knows where we are going even before we do.
There is a big difference though, between our Lord and a GPS unit:
Plugging in a destination in your GPS and expecting the GPS voice to start directing you is the norm. This is what it is designed to do BUT wanting to do something in our lives for example, wanting a particular job, and then EXPECTING God to act is wrong.
God does not act on our instruction! God has already acted! He will direct us in life if it is His will for us. If it is against gods will, the Spirit will be there warning you and trying to direct you in another direction, one that is where we should be going, not where WE WANT to go.
We pray for a new job and if we don't get it, we blame God for not giving it to us.
Again let me say, God does not act upon our instruction.
Rather, we are directed by His love and willing for us to follow His Way!
We are not forced!

If you miss your turn, the GPS will keep on trying to get you back on course and not stop. God is the same. He doesn't say to us "Well, you don't listen to me so I am just going to stop trying to show you...Your Loss!"
He keeps on trying to correct our course in life because He loves us!
But, we have to accept that love, otherwise that little voice that speaks to us will be like putting your GPS volume on mute......You will not hear it!

I really thought this would be an interesting comparison, although it is difficult because my aim is not to compare our great Lord to piece of technology.....but I think you get the point?

Amen