Tonight, do you find yourself in a real bind? Has something in your life gone so wrong that you just want to run and hide? That is the natural tendency in all of us when terrible circumstances overwhelm us, but God wants to use every one of these situations to train you and to literally change the direction of your life.

When everything in us wants to run backwards, God wants us to turn around and flee forward! There is nothing in your new spiritual nature that would motivate you to shrink back in fear; God has created you to "run to the roar!"

God Himself says, "... if anyone draws back, my soul has no pleasure in him" (Hebrews 10:38, NKJV). But the next verse tells us that we are not a people who draw back. We flee forward! Nothing stops us from moving ahead. A tremendous example of this is in the book of Acts when, having just been flogged by the Jews: "The apostles left the Sanhedrin, rejoicing because they had been counted worthy of suffering disgrace for the Name. Day after day, in the temple courts and from house to house, they never stopped teaching and proclaiming the good news that Jesus is the Christ" (Acts 5:41-42, NIV).

We all want to escape painful circumstances. But the difference between the true believers who are victorious in Christ and those who fall back, lies in the direction of flight. Don't run back ... flee forward and lay hold of God!

Heavenly Father, Your Word promises me that You will always provide a way of escape, a way out. Help me to see that the "way out" in You is always forward! Thank you that with Your hand on me I need never turn back ... but can proceed in the forward path of those who truly believe. In Jesus' Name, Amen.