“Surely your goodness and love will follow me all the days of my life, and I will dwell in the house of the Lord forever.” (Psalm 23:6 NIV)

I have experienced the truth of this verse so many times. So often I find myself wanting to be with my heavenly Father. He is my friend (See John 15:15). When I have problems, I ask my Heavenly Father for help and He helps me. Every time. Of course, I have to ask, and when I do ask, I need to recognize His voice and listen for His response; but my Heavenly Father always knows where I am. I cannot hide from Him. I never have to fear that He has “lost” me. Sometimes I don’t recognize the help He sends until later, but He has never, ever once held back the help I’ve needed. Wherever I am, He cares for me.

And whenever I am tempted to forget these truths, all I have to do is remember Psalms 23:6 — “Surely your goodness and love will follow me all the days of my life, and I will dwell in the house of the Lord forever.” (NIV)

The good news is that YOU are His child as well! If you have a problems, just ask our Heavenly Father. He will help you.

To learn to recognize this help, however, we do need to get to know Him.

Several years ago, our eldest son was in Toronto. He had come in from Waterloo, a city two hours away, by bus, and was headed to the airport where he would pick up a car my wife had left there the day before when she had flown out to Edmonton, in western Canada, with our younger son. He was then planning on driving that car home, and he and I were going to spend a father/son weekend away. We were both looking forward to this. There wasn’t a direct train from Union Station to the international airport in Toronto in those days, and in order to take the shuttle, he had to exit Union Station and walk a few blocks. This was also before the day of googlemaps on your smart phone. Hey, I don’t even think our family owned smart phones back then! In any case, he found himself lost in downtown Toronto.

What does an overgrown kid do when he finds himself lost?

Yup, you got it. He called his mom. Notice he called his mom – who was out west in Edmonton, 4000 km away! Why he didn’t call someone in the same province, I don’t know; but he called his mom. She, of course, was nowhere near a computer when the call came through, and after listening to his story, she suggested he call me, as I was at home with access to a computer!

That is what he did next. He called me at home and asked me to give him directions. To be perfectly honest, he likely called his mom first because it is well known in the family that my sense of direction never fully developed, and what little I might once have had fled long ago for greener – or perhaps smarter – pastures!  So there I was. I was in front of a computer, yes, but I had no idea where he was, and only because of Map Quest could I even figure out where he wanted to be! What was I going to do?

In the end I did the only thing that made sense: I asked my Heavenly Dad to help me. And He did. My son was able to tell me where, exactly, he was, by identifying the street names, and I was able to map out a route for him on Map Quest. Then, with our phones in hand, I talked him through the directions one intersection at a time until the shuttle stop was in view.  

That was only the beginning of his troubles, however. When he finally arrived at the airport, he took an airport shuttle to the designated parking lot and went in to pay my wife’s parking fee…Only to discover that somehow and somewhere his wallet had gone missing!

What did he do?

Yup, you got it! He called his mom in Edmonton…

That was the right decision this time, however. She was by then back in her hotel, and since the parking bill was in her name, she was able to call the parking company and “free” the car by giving them a credit card number. The only problem he then faced was the two hour drive home in the middle of the night without his drivers’ license… Oh, and there was also that minor detail that he was supposed to drive the tow vehicle with our trailer for our little weekend away… Needless to say, we spent the following morning replacing a driver’s license…

In retrospect, if our son hadn’t reached out to his parents, he might still be lost in Toronto, with a car in a parking garage that he couldn’t liberate! The good news is that God is always there, He’s always “at His computer” or “in His hotel room” so to speak, and He is always waiting and willing to help us. All we have to do is ask!

It is indeed a wonderful thing to be considered a friend of the God of the universe! When we know Him, when we turn to Him, we can be sure that, “Surely [His] goodness and love will follow me all the days of my life, and I will dwell in the house of the Lord forever.” Psalm (23:6)

In His love,
Rob Chaffart

(To access the entire “The Sling for God” devotional series, please click here.)