God Is My Guide - iBelieve Truth: A Devotional for Women - July 15

God Is My Guide
By Tiffany Thibault

For this God is our guide forever and ever; he will be our guide even to the end. - Psalm 48:14

While on a vacation to Ecuador, my husband, our two daughters and myself enjoyed all the sights, sounds and experiences of a different culture. We enjoyed walking around the city that we were staying in, trying out different restaurants and exploring the city’s historic buildings. One day we stumbled upon a local equestrian school that also gave trail rides. To my girls’ great excitement, we made plans for a two-hour ride the next day.

Our trail guide spoke English and matched us up with horses whose temperaments balanced our inexperience. Our guide then led us down dirt roads, crossing small creeks, and then passing by farms of sheep, horses and cattle. We saw women hanging out their laundry, and men working in their fields. The Ecuadorian countryside was so peaceful and quiet. Our guide would talk with us throughout the entire ride, pointing out how to ride better, what we should look at across the road, and encouraging us for how we were controlling the horses. Our experience was so amazing, and our trust in the guide so strong, that when he mentioned a more difficult trail ride he thought we should do with him, we agreed and booked the ride for the next week.

The day before our second trail ride was stormy, raining all day long. My girls were very worried that our trail ride would be canceled, but the next day the sun peeked out from the clouds, promising to be a beautiful day.

We began our trail ride through a grassy field, and then stopped at the base of a mountain. Our guide said that the trail was narrow and muddy and that his horses knew how to handle the ride up and down, so we were to just keep our hands loose on the reins. Our guide kept telling us to trust the horses when the path was muddy, so we did.

The horses did easily climb to the top of that Andes Mountain. The view was absolutely breathtaking. That need for trust soon became crucial again as the horses began to descend down the mountain. The trail was steep and very muddy. My youngest daughter rode in front of me. I began to freak out as I saw her horse lose its footing and start to slip down the path. My horse also began to slip as it followed closely behind her. The guide yelled out a reminder to us to let the reins loose and let the horse get us down the hill safely.

Though it went against my need to control this situation, I trusted the guide and loosened my hands. My horse quickly found solid footing, but I couldn’t breathe easily until we were on flat ground.

For this God is our guide forever and ever; he will be our guide even to the end. - Psalm 48:14

I love this Bible verse! I can’t read it without thinking of how important trust in my trail guide and horse were vital to our experience. This is our God. We never need to doubt who God is. He is God, always and forever. He will be our guide. I love the way the writer uses the phrase: forever and ever. He was emphasizing that God will guide us; and He will not stop guiding us ever!

The verse also says He will be our guide to the end. I love that I can spend the rest of my life allowing God to lead me in truth, and to places, experiences and relationships because I am trusting Him. I can trust Him because I am seeking to know Him more.

It’s only when we have built that experience of trust in Him that we can allow ourselves to trust that He will guide us in every situation that we are going through.

Have you accepted this God as your God? As you go through new experiences, are you remembering how He helped you through other situations in the past?

It’s only when we intentionally get to know this God, and allow our trust in Him to grow, that we can have stronger faith to get through the muddy, slippery paths of our life. The more we know him, the more we can trust Him to not let us fall. Today I pray you will trust this God to guide you forever and ever, and that He will be your guide to the very end.

Tiffany Thibault enjoys living life with her husband, two daughters and one very large dog in San Diego. She not only homeschools her girls, but she also loves to write about Jesus and speak about Him to groups of women. She loves long walks, coffee and anything chocolate.

Related Resource: Instead of Doing More This Summer, Maybe You Need to Do Less

If you've been feeling tired, overwhelmed, depleted, or just quietly wondering where God is in the middle of a very full life — this episode is for you. And honestly? It might be for me too, because I'm recording this in one of those seasons myself.

Today we're doing something a little different. Instead of going deep in a passage, we're talking about what to do when deep feels like too much — when you need less, not more. Specifically, I'm walking you through one of my favorite practices for weary seasons: handwriting scripture.

Not typing it. Not scrolling past it. Actually writing it out, slowly, in your own hand — because something happens in your brain when you do that. The words land differently. They go deeper. And over time, they become part of that personal library of God's voice that the Holy Spirit can pull from when you need it most. That's what Psalm 119:11 means when it says I have hidden your word in my heart — it's scripture moving into your long-term memory, where it lives and stays even when you haven't opened your Bible in weeks.

I'm sharing the five verses I wrote out for myself today — and why each one hit me fresh even though I've known some of them for years. This episode is part of our How to Study the Bible Podcast, a show that brings life back to reading the Bible and helps you understand even the hardest parts of Scripture. If this episode helps you know and love God more, be sure to follow the How to Study the Bible Podcast on Apple or Spotify so you never miss an episode!