GPS

 

“You have forsaken your first love. Remember the height from which you have fallen! Repent and do the things you did at first.”

—Revelation 2:4-5

“Turn around! Go back!” she emphatically commanded.

I was driving in a locale where I had never driven before. I thought I had correctly followed the directions I had been given. But, before I went miles out of my way, frustrating myself, and making myself late for the conference, the voice of the Global Positioning System (GPS) Satellite Navigation System’s voice interrupted my directional plans and set me right back on the right track.

In His great mercy and grace, God has given Christians an automatic navigational voice, too, in the person of the indwelling Holy Spirit. The Spirit, living in our presence at all times, speaks to us when we are headed in the wrong direction. It might be easier for us if the Holy Spirit chose to speak using voice commands we could actually hear. But I wonder, would we really listen any more closely? In order to take full advantage of the Spirit’s leading, we must really want to hear His guidance.

Instead of saying “Go back!” the Holy Spirit says the word, “Repent!” which effectively means the same thing. Instead of using an audible voice, the Spirit speaks using Scripture, our time spent in silent prayer, a preacher’s sermon, a sense of a cold heart, and other means to get our attention and urge us to stop, turn around, and go back.

In the Book of Revelation, God sent John to warn seven prominent new churches of their sin, and their need to take drastic action. To four of them, He uses the specific instruction: “Repent!” In the verse quoted at the beginning of this blog post, through John, God tells them to go back to doing the things they did at the beginning, when they were young and passionate about their love for Him—like a giddy teen with his or her first love.

If we don’t obey the “holy GPS warning,” we will easily fall into the bondage of sin and the chains of our enemy, Satan, who wants to devour us, to pull us away from Christ, to blind us, enslave us, and destroy us.

Here’s how Charles H. Spurgeon put it:¹

The Lord Jesus has paid too high a price for our redemption to leave us in the enemy’s hand. The way to freedom is “Return to the Lord thy God.” Where we first found salvation, we shall find it again. At the foot of Christ’s cross confessing sin, we shall find pardon and deliverance. Moreover, the Lord will have us obey His voice according to all that He has commanded us, and we must do this with all our heart, and all our soul, and then our captivity shall end.

God remembers our eager faith, our hearts’ cries to serve Him, our zeal for His people and for His house. He looks for us to return there again. “Go back! Turn around!” and we will find Him waiting!

______________________

1 Spurgeon, Charles H. Faith’s Checkbook. Chicago: Moody Press, 1980. Devotional for May 5th.