Your Personal GPS, Guidance Through Prayer and Scripture Study

Are you trying to figure out where you are going and the best way to get there? The art of navigation has been a challenge to travellers and explorers for centuries. Sailors looked to the coastline for landmarks to mark their paths, and when they could no longer see the coast, they looked to the heavens. Early mariners created charts using the longitudinal and latitudinal lines to mark their course. One of the greatest advancements made in this area was due to the invention of the compass with its magnetic needle that pointed the path northward.

All of these breakthroughs were simply steps to the development of the technology of choice today, the GPS. The GPS is actually the acronym for a worldwide radio-navigtation system called a Global Positioning System. The GPS is formed by 24 satellites or "man made stars" and their gound stations. These satellites have the ability to calculate positions acurate to a matter of meters or even centimeters. These systems are starting to be so available that they soon may be as popular as the cell phone.

Is it really safe to follow the directions of the GPS? A computer consultant in New York would answer that question with a big NO. Following the directions given by his GPS that came with his rental car, he made a right turn onto a railroad track and got stuck. Fortunately, he escaped unhurt as the train barreled straight into the abandoned car.

Because the system is not always foolproof, blindly following the machine doesn't always work out. Just because a machine tells you to do something that is potentially dangerous, you are still responsible for the choice to listen. In that way we are still smarter than they are.

If you can not always trust the GPS who can you rely on? Believing that all things point someway to Christ, the GPS is a wonderful symbolic representation of a principle taught by the prophet Jeremiah, "Thus saith the Lord; Cursed be the man that trusteth in man, and making flesh his arm, and whose heart departeth from the Lord." Looking toward the heavens for answers is recommended however, not toward the "man-made stars" but directly to God.

The GPS could be an acronym for another type of directional system, Guidance, by Prayer, and Scriptures.

Guidance means supervised care or assistance, guiding, leadership and direction, advice or counsel. Who would be more qualified to give guidance than one who had already been on the same road and arrived at His destination perfectly? One who has perfect love and concern for you and has a desire for you to arrive at the same destination as Him? Guidance received from God, through his son, Jesus Christ, is the best possible answer. God sent His son for us to follow, to look to for direction and safety.

Prayer is the way we access the guidance that we desire. Prayer is communication between the petitioner and God, through Jesus Christ. It is two way communication, involving the process of asking and receiving.

Scripture study can give us direction by learning through the written word of God. The Lord has given us scripture for our benefit and learning. The apostle Mark recorded "...Do ye not therefore err, because ye know not the scriptures, neither the power of God?"

As a member of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints we believe The Bible to be the word of God, as far as it is translated correctly, we also believe The Book of Mormon, to be the word of God. The Bible is a record or history of the Jews in the land of Jerusalem, and The Book of Mormon is a history of God's children located in the Americas. We believe in continuing revelation through the instrument of the Holy Ghost. We believe all that God has revealed, all that He does now reveal, and that He will yet reveal many great and important things pertaining to the Kingdom of God. Scriptures become alive with continued guidance by the spirit, making them living directions from God.

If we can remember to rely on the arm of God and look less to the "man-made" stars we will receive directions that are sure. He stands ready to guide anyone who has an honest heart, who seeks with real intent.

Moroni 10:4 And when ye shall receive these things, I would exhort you that ye would ask God, the Eternal Father, in the name of Christ, if these things are not true; and if ye shall ask with a sincere heart, with real intent, having faith in Christ, he will manifest the truth of it unto you, by the power of the Holy Ghost.

5 And by the power of the Holy Ghost ye may know the truth of all things.

6 And whatsoever thing is good is just and true; wherefore, nothing that is good denieth the Christ, but acknowledgeth that he is.

Is this GPS reliable? Try it and see.