Light for the Path

Here are some verses that have “stood out” to us during our adoption journey.
Feel free to share some of your favorites in the Comments. 

A PRELUDE:

Your word is a lamp to my feet and a light to my path. Psalm 119:105

Well-known and often quoted, this verse took on a whole new meaning for our family during a trip to Kenya, Africa in the fall of 2010. Our second night there, we found ourselves walking down an unfamiliar, crater-filled dirt road in the pitch black with one flashlight for five sets of feet. 

As we stumbled and struggled to direct the light for our journey, we realized the beam had to be aimed directly toward the spot our feet would fall next. Shining it further down the path, as we might do on a stroll back home, wouldn’t cut it here. The words of this verse came alive during that walk. God reminded us that yes, His Word is a lamp, but often it does not light the area (or life path) all around; instead, it may give just enough light for the next step. 

Our journey to adoption parallels this experience. First, there are many passages in the Bible with which we were familiar, but they seem to have come alive and opened our eyes, ears, and hearts. We believe it is the work of God’s Spirit as we seek to know more of Him. Second, we are reminded that many times, He will not cast light far down the path; rather, He shines just enough light for the next step. His Word is our guide.

The Message phrases the verse this way:

By your words I can see where I'm going; they throw a beam of light on my dark path.

ORPHAN CARE & ADVOCACY:

Isaiah 58

Religion that is pure and undefiled before God, the Father, is this: to visit orphans and widows in their affliction, and to keep oneself unstained from the world.        James 1:27

Defend the weak and the fatherless; uphold the cause of the poor and the oppressed.    Psalm 82:3

FAITH & TRUST
Out of the depths I cry to you, O Lord!
    O Lord, hear my voice!
Let your ears be attentive
    to the voice of my pleas for mercy!

If you, O Lord, should mark iniquities,
    O Lord, who could stand?
But with you there is forgiveness,
    that you may be feared.

I wait for the Lord, my soul waits,
    and in his word I hope;
my soul waits for the Lord
    more than watchmen for the morning,
    more than watchmen for the morning.

O Israel, hope in the Lord!
    For with the Lord there is steadfast love,
    and with him is plentiful redemption.
And he will redeem Israel
    from all his iniquities. 

                                          Psalm 130

ENDURANCE & ASSURANCE:

But recall the former days when, after you were enlightened, you endured a hard struggle with sufferings, sometimes being publicly exposed to reproach and affliction, and sometimes being partners with those so treated. For you had compassion on those in prison, and you joyfully accepted the plundering of your property, since you knew that you yourselves had a better possession and an abiding one. Therefore do not throw away your confidence, which has a great reward. For you have need of endurance, so that when you have done the will of God you may receive what is promised. For,

“Yet a little while,
    and the coming one will come and will not delay;
but my righteous one shall live by faith,
    and if he shrinks back,
my soul has no pleasure in him.”

But we are not of those who shrink back and are destroyed, but of those who have faith and preserve their souls.

Hebrews 10:32-39