NIV 365 / Life in the Fast Lane

The NIV 365-Day Devotional Reading Plan

Day 156 of 365 Life in the Fast Lane Joanie could scarcely believe her eyes. The woman speeding along the Los Angeles freeway next to her balanced a cup of coffee and a cigarette in one hand and ignored her three children bouncing around in the back seat. At that moment, Joanie longed to quit her job and move to the mountains. She prayed, "Lord, I'm tired of this fast-paced life. Can I get off this merry-go-round?" Maybe life in the fast lane doesn't appeal to you anymore either. You're tired. You need a break. Maybe you're thinking of buying a nice little cabin with a fireplace, a cat and a rocking chair. Anywhere but here, Lord,<.i> you think. But what does God think? Following her release from Ravensbruck concentration camp, Corrie ten Boom purchased a house called Schapendunien and turned it into a home for disabled people and ex-prisoners. She thought that was where God wanted her to settle down. But in late 1945, she began to sense that God wanted her to travel to the United States to tell her story. So she crossed the Atlantic and became what she described as a "tramp for the Lord." It wasn't until 1977, when she suffered a stroke, that she finally retired to a home in Orange, California. Choosing to follow God's leading rather than her own comfort level, Corrie ten Boom maintained an itinerant lifestyle of travel for Christ. You may be facing unbearable pressures in your daily life, pressures you think will get better if you settle down in a peaceful location of your choice. But God showed the Israelites that he chooses our paths. He gave them a visible reminder of his presence to guide them: a cloud by day and a fire by night. When the cloud lifted, they set out; when it stopped, they camped. God's sign in the sky marked their course and set the pace. By looking up, the Israelites discovered that the Lord ordained the movements of his people; God saying "no" was just as important as God saying "go." God alone knew the reasons for the journey, the unseen dangers ahead and the ultimate purpose beyond each move. God ordered the lives of the Israelites. And he'll order yours if you will let him. If you need to know which way to turn, look up. Taken from NIV Women's Devotional Bible Numbers 9:15-23 Numbers 9:15-23 KJV 15 And on the day that the tabernacle was reared up the cloud covered the tabernacle, namely, the tent of the testimony: and at even there was upon the tabernacle as it were the appearance of fire, until the morning. 16 So it was alway: the cloud covered it by day, and the appearance of fire by night. 17 And when the cloud was taken up from the tabernacle, then after that the children of Israel journeyed: and in the place where the cloud abode, there the children of Israel pitched their tents. 18 At the commandment of the Lord the children of Israel journeyed, and at the commandment of the Lord they pitched: as long as the cloud abode upon the tabernacle they rested in their tents. 19 And when the cloud tarried long upon the tabernacle many days, then the children of Israel kept the charge of the Lord , and journeyed not. 20 And so it was, when the cloud was a few days upon the tabernacle; according to the commandment of the Lord they abode in their tents, and according to the commandment of the Lord they journeyed. 21 And so it was, when the cloud abode from even unto the morning, and that the cloud was taken up in the morning, then they journeyed: whether it was by day or by night that the cloud was taken up, they journeyed. 22 Or whether it were two days, or a month, or a year, that the cloud tarried upon the tabernacle, remaining thereon, the children of Israel abode in their tents, and journeyed not: but when it was taken up, they journeyed. 23 At the commandment of the Lord they rested in the tents, and at the commandment of the Lord they journeyed: they kept the charge of the Lord , at the commandment of the Lord by the hand of Moses.