You must follow exactly the path that the Lord your God has commanded you, so that you may live, and that it may go well with you, and that you may live long in the land that you are to possess. Deuteronomy 5:33.
Thy Word is a lamp unto my feet and a light unto my path. Psalm 119:105
We are told repeatedly in scripture that the Lord has a path for us that is the right way. Yet we so often fail to see it. Spiritual darkness or spiritual fog keeps us clueless about whether we are indeed on the right path. Thankfully, God has given us a light, His Word, to serve as light along the way. Light is wonderful for lighting our way in the darkeness, but have you noticed that when it’s foggy, even a light doesn’t help. It just reflects off the fog and makes us even more aware of how little we can see. It can be a frightening experience to realize how vulnerable we are without vision down the road.
In the Upper Room devotional this week there was a reference to spiritual fog being one of many conditions- denial, unbelief, intellectualism, anger, fear, grief, addiction, abuse, pride, etc. While it’s true that the light of the Word won’t necessarily instantly make the way clear, it will make us acutely aware of how much we need help and guidance and to exercise caution and go slowly. Eventually, fog lifts as the day becomes light and warmer with the rising of the sun. But in the meantime we have to be cautious.
I think about pilots who have to learn not to depend on their senses but to depend on their navigation equipment, to fly by instrumentation alone. Somehow I think God would have us come to trust Him in the fog, just as those pilots have to learn to trust their navigation equipment, knowing that He knows the way and He knows what obstacles lie in the path. Rising to the level of trust required to fly by instrumentation alone, we can still trust His Word and His loving character to bring us through not only the darkness, but the fog as well.