Billboards litter the sides of highways almost as much as trash does. How effective can these be when the target audience races by like the Indy 500? The most effective billboard sports a few words. Anything beyond three or four is a blur for drivers who think the speed limit is optional.
Two billboards on a nearby Interstate captured my attention. The first, big black letters emboldened on a white background tell passing motorists to “Think God.” The other declares a similarly short message: “Trust Your Senses” on a brightly colored, busy, floral-decorated sign. Both kept the message short and sweet, but only one kept its point simple for a fast-paced world.
Trusting your senses—sight, hearing, taste, touch, and smell—can lead you astray even though they help navigate the world around you. I have reached an age where trusting my senses gets me in trouble. My hearing sometimes fails me. The other evening, my eyes convinced me that small deer were in my backyard. Morning light revealed that our Adirondack chairs had been turned upside down. (Hey, those legs could have been antlers!)
All of our senses can deceive us. Think God. His word of God never does.
The Bible tells us: “This God—his way is perfect;[d]
the word of the Lord proves true;
he is a shield for all those who take refuge in him.
For who is God, but the Lord?
And who is a rock, except our God?—
the God who equipped me with strength
and made my way blameless.
He made my feet like the feet of a deer
and set me secure on the heights.”(Psalm 18:30-33 ESV)
We believe the psalmist’s words when the road we walk is easy. When it gets tough, we think God’s way isn’t perfect; He doesn’t protect or defend. We are alone.
Satan deceives us the same way our senses do. He mixes a little reality with lies. I believed I saw deer that evening because they frequent my backyard, making a buffet of my plants and flowers. True, yet my eyes tricked me.
The devil will deceive us into believing that God doesn’t really care about us. We learn in the book of Genesis that Adam and Eve, who walked right alongside God in person, believed this lie from Satan. He took God’s very words about not eating from “the tree of the knowledge of good and evil” and said that God was holding out on them. He left out the second part about how it would lead to death. God wanted Adam and Eve to follow his path. They sinned when they went their own way, eating from the tree. Sin meant separation from God, the “death” God warned them about.
Friend, we do the same thing when we point God at what we think would make us happy and complete. We tell him he can’t possibly love us in the dark places. We rail against him. Yet a loving God will withhold what he knows will harm us and separate us from Him.
He wants to protect you, like he tried to protect Adam and Eve. He wants us to “Think God”, not trust ourselves or our senses. Our ways fall short every time. Only His way is perfect. When we navigate the rough roads with Him, He will lead us to His perfect will.
IT'S A HARnDen LIFE... 