Just Enough Light To Take The Next Step

Acts 22:10--So I said, 'What shall I do, Lord?' And the Lord said to me, 'Arise and go into Damascus, and there you will be told all things which are appointed for you to.

            In my last post I started a series called Modus Operandi in which I am examining the ways and manners in which God operates.  That was Part 1 and I want to continue that series today in Part 2 and talk about another way God operates in the area of guidance. All throughout Scripture God promises to guide us in all aspects of our lives.  Passages such as Psalm 32:8- I will instruct you and teach you in the way you should go; I will guide you with My eye; Psalm 48:14- For this is God, our God forever and ever; He will be our guide even to death; and Psalm 73:24 -You will guide me with Your counsel, and afterward receive me to glory are just a few of the promises God has given to us in the area of guidance.  Yes, God has promised to guide us but He guides us in His way not ours.  We serve a God who guides one step at a time.

Throughout our lives we will all come to points where we really need the LORD to guide us and order our steps.  We will come to forks in the road where we need Him to show us which direction to take.  God will give us that direction but won’t allow us to see the big picture.  Our walk with God is a walk of faith, not a walk of sight.  He wants us to trust Him and be obedient in the little steps He is calling us to take.  He wants us to trust Him without knowing all of the details.  There is a saying that says, “Just Enough Light for the Step I’m on.”  The way God operates in the way of guidance is to give us just enough light and revelation to know what step to take next.  It is like as if you were in a dark underground cave system trying to find your way out and all you had was a candle.  This candle would give you just enough light to know which way to go but not enough light to see the entire layout of the cave.  You would be able to only see a few feet in front of you, not hundreds of yards down the tunnel.  It is the same with God.  God is that candle and the cave system is our life.  He will give you a flicker to only see a few feet into your future.  Most of the time He will not allow you to see beyond the next step and will not allow you to know what comes next.  We must simply trust Him and follow where He is leading us.  When we get to the destination He is guiding us to, He will reveal a little more and show us where to go from there.

Of course anything I say means nothing so let’s look at God’s Word to see this principle in action.  I want to examine Acts 22:10, a passage where the apostle Paul is giving his testimony to his Jewish brothers at the temple when they tried to kill him.  At this point Paul is describing how he was converted.  In verse 10 he asks the Lord what to do.  God simply responds by giving Saul one command, “Arise and go to Damascus.”  God gave Paul just enough light to know what step to take next –go to Damascus.  God didn’t tell him anything else, didn’t give him any more information.  God didn’t tell him when you get to Damascus a brother named Ananias will pray over you and you will receive your sight and be baptized.  Then, you will try to preach but the Jews will try to kill you, and you will have to escape for your life in a basket.  Next, you will go to the wilderness of Arabia where I will personally disciple you for 3 years.  After that you are going to go all over the world on missionary journeys and plant many churches.  You will be stoned, left for dead, beaten, flogged, shipwrecked, arrested, thrown in prison, put in stocks, and finally executed in Rome.  No, God didn’t tell Paul any of this.  God simply told him to go to Damascus.  Notice how God also told Paul that once he was in Damascus he would be given more information. The second part of Acts 22:10 says, “…and there you will be told all things which are appointed for you to do.” 

I believe God only shows us a little bit at a time for two reasons.  We would either become prideful or we would run.  In either case we would not be able to handle the revelation.  If God had showed Paul how mightily He was going to use him, Paul’s head would have probably become too big and pride would have prevented it all.  No, God chose to keep it secret that Paul was going to be the greatest missionary in history and that he would write over half of the New Testament.  Similarly, if God had shown Paul how much he was going to suffer for the sake of the Gospel Paul might have told God no thank you and ran from His calling.

We are no different.  God knows what He is doing in our lives.  We need to just walk toward the light He has given us.  He will give us more light once we get there.  I encourage you to follow the light God has given you.  It will get brighter as you follow it.  God bless.