“And thine ears shall hear a word behind thee, saying, ‘This is the way, walk ye in it, when ye turn to the right hand, and when ye turn to the left’” (Isaiah 30:21, KJV).

I once knew someone who would wait for guidance before buying any particular brand of cornflakes in the supermarket. It must have taken an age to get around the store!

When I was a youth leader, sincere youngsters would sometimes get themselves into a paralysis of indecision about choices they faced. God guides us often by our prayerful weighing up of pros and cons and by opening some doors or closing others.

Our verse says that we receive guidance “when” we turn to the left or right. There is no merit in standing indecisively at the crossroads. The Lord does not guide by magical means. A woman came to a fork in the road and threw a stick into the air. It landed, pointing up one road. She threw it again. When it landed, it pointed up the other road, so she went. An observer asked her why she threw the stick in the air. She replied, “I go the way the stick points.” When he asked why she didn’t go the way it pointed the first time, she replied, “Oh, I didn’t want to go that way.”

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