Instrument Rated – Part 3

The unfolding of your words gives light; it gives understanding to the simple. Psalms 119:130

In order for you to be instrument rated, an instructor will accompany you on your training missions. The instructor will place a long-billed cap on your head, so that all you can see is the instrument panel in front of you. That’s because this is all you’ll be able to see when you’re flying in storm conditions. You must learn to work your instruments and radio, doing many turns and being able to bring the plane down within a few feet of the landing strip. And you must do all this without ever looking to see where you are, without the confirmation of your senses. This simulated blindness, causing confusion to the average person, is soon overcome by disciplined training. The flights ‘under the hood’, as the procedure’s called, become merely routine flights. What happens when unprepared Christians are plunged into darkness by the trials of life? They begin to question what’s happening. Everything was going well; all they could see ahead was fair weather. But now they’ve lost their sense of direction because they have not spent time in God’s Word. They have not been taught to trust God regardless of what they see or feel, so they get discouraged, sometimes backslide, and sometimes even blame God and get swallowed up in bitterness. Paul writes to Timothy, ‘Study and be eager and do your utmost to present yourself to God approved (tested by trial), a workman who has no cause to be ashamed, correctly analyzing and accurately dividing [rightly handling and skillfully teaching] the Word of Truth’ (2 Timothy 2:15).

Prayer
Heavenly Father, help me to know Your Word so that when the storms come I can get through them knowing Your Word. In Jesus’ Name, Amen