“You have made known to me the paths of life; you will fill me with joy in your presence.” Acts 2:28 NIV
This verse is part of the speech that Peter made during Pentecost when over 3,000 people came to know Jesus and were saved. During Pentecost, Peter and the other disciples who had been in the house were filled with the Holy Spirit and were able to do things that they had not done before. Peter who had denied Jesus 3 times to small groups of people on the night Jesus was arrested, now stood in front of over 3,000 people and was shouting for them to hear him.
He was explaining to the crowd gathered around him and the other disciples that resurrection of the Messiah that had occurred 50 days prior to this gathering had been prophesized in scripture in what we know to be the Old Testament. That the path that history was to take had been laid out and talked about years before any of it happened.
When Peter was talking about the paths of life, he wasn’t referring to the road he was walking on to get from town to town. He was referring to the path that leads to salvation and righteousness in the eyes of God the Father. The path that aligns with God’s perfect will. When we are able to see the path that God wants us to walk, I believe we can see the other path of life that we could choose at that moment as well.
I visualize a path that comes to a ‘V’ and as we stand there we are able to see the path that God wants for us to walk and the other path at the same time. It is our choice at that moment to choose which path we are going to walk down. God has given us the choice and presented the options, it is up to us to choose who we will follow, God or the world.
In the second half of this verse, Peter is talking about joy and the joy that he is talking about is not an emotion that is reliant on circumstance. This joy only comes from being in a relationship with God, being in His presence when we pray and worship Him. Joy of this kind runs deep inside us and fills up holes we have in our souls, holes that nothing else can fill. We were made to be in a personal intimate relationship with God and when we are able to see that, choose that and live that, we are filled with an unspeakable joy.
I cannot imagine what it was like to be there in the presence of the Holy Spirit filling these faithful followers of Jesus as they spoke so boldly of His life, His deity, His death and resurrection. The energy and excitement at the possibility of salvation for this large crowd of people must have been overwhelming, and yet, Peter and the disciples did exactly what they were led to do by the Holy Spirit, they did not cower in the corner or become afraid of what the crowd could do to them. Instead they preached to the crowd and confronted the crowd with the truth and then led them to eternal salvation.
We all have paths that we can choose from, the path that the world would like us to walk and the path the God has laid out that follows His perfect will for our lives. It is our choice which we choose to follow. I know that the path of the world looks wonderful on the surface, but it is filled with pain and disappointment because it is a path that veers away from God.
The path that God has laid out for each one of us doesn’t always look like the path we want to take. I can attest that it wasn’t the path that I thought I wanted to take at first either. I thought I knew what I wanted in life and I didn’t believe that I could have those things or accomplish those things by walking the path that God laid out for me. I was so incredibly wrong.
Once I decided to choose to follow Jesus, truly follow Him, I have walked a path that has not always been easy, but I have never been alone on it. The most important part of walking this path that leads to righteousness in God is that I am able to be in a personal relationship with my Creator. The joy that I feel each day is only because I am able to be in that relationship and God is in my life.
So, my question to you to think about today is……..which path do you want to choose?