Driving a car

Driving a car

When we are first learning to drive a car, we’re vigilant, and maybe we even pray for God’s help: but after thousands of hours behind the wheel our confidence in our own ability takes over. We no longer seek God’s protection, we jump in the driver's seat with no thought of seeking God’s help. We got this, we’re confident in our own ability. We know what we’re doing.

Muscle memory takes over, we know we can do it, because we’ve done it (successfully) thousands of times. We don’t even think about what we’re doing, or where we’re going, we're just blindly going through the motions without thinking about were we're going. We need the Holy Spirit to lead us, we cant get there on our own. I have driven a car for so many years that I have to set my GPS, or I may miss my turn, because I’m thinking about other things. 

Instead of looking for God’s leading, and provision, slowly and imperceptibly, we begin to trust in our own ability and our own resources. Before we know it, we look up from our lives to wonder where we are, and where we were going. Like that farmer who had a great harvest; he’d completely forgotten God, all he saw was his opportunity to provide for himself. He had achieved financial independence, but who did he achieve independence from? That night his life was required of him, and this warning is to all who are not rich toward God. What does it profit us to gain the world if we lose our souls, and what have we found in this world that really satisfies the deepest longing of our hearts? 

If the mind that was in Christ isn't in us, that is our prison.

What diminishes our reliance on God more than our self confidence? Are we seeking his will for our lives or are we satisfied with our own ability to provide our own comfort? Do we always pray, “give us this day our daily bread,” or have we  become wealthy, and need nothing? If we aren’t grateful, filled with gratitude, that we have plenty to eat, it’s because we no longer see that God gives it to us, and we think we’ve earned it ourselves. It’s impossible to show gratitude to someone else for what you have accomplished yourself.

Where are we going and what is our ultimate goal? Surely we don’t mean to forget God, it just happens. We don’t plan to walk away from him, but we do. Somewhere, along the way we ate and were satisfied.  Somewhere along the way our dependence on God shifted to dependency in our job, our ability to do that job, and earn that paycheck. When we no longer rely on God we began to lean on our own understanding, and like Israel when they brought in more than enough manna for the day, life begins to stink. God told them to only pick up what they would eat each day, except the day before the sabbath. He promised to provide their daily bread, but instead of trusting God they went out and loaded up enough for the whole week. They didn’t want to have to trust in God’s provision. They wanted to trust in their own ability to supply their own needs. 

What if there was wind or rain, what if they were sick and couldn’t go out to collect it, and what if God didn’t provide tomorrow? When we replace God with fear, fear will drive us far from God. These are the same doubts and fears that we go through when we lose a job. When we’re asked to walk away from a job?. We still face this test, and these trials, and we can still justify keeping our dependence in a job that God’s been telling us to walk away from. When we choose fear over faith, and disobey God, we can be sure that just as that manna rotted, and stunk up the tents of the Israelites, our own lack of faith is going to rot, and a sicking stench is going to cover our lives. 

When God’s children don’t walk by faith life stinks. Remember when Abraham lied about Sahara and said she was his sister? His fear of man was greater than his fear of God, and it cost him every time. Now we can quote that the beginning of wisdom is the fear of the Lord, but is our fear of God greater than our fear of the circumstances that assault us? That job that God gave you will no longer give you the fulfillment, peace, and purpose it once did; because it never give those things to you, those things came by obeying God. When that job was God’s will for your life you had peace, not because of it, but because you walked in His will. 

We can fear losing a relationship, if we confront another's sin, if we call out an adult child for their behavior, if we hold them accountable; but if the Holy Spirit told us to do something, and our fear of the circumstance is greater than our fear of God, we are denying wisdom! Listen to Roman’s 12 again; "When they knew God they did not glorify him as God so he gave them over."

““How long, you simple ones, will you love simplicity? For scorners delight in their scorning, And fools hate knowledge. Turn at my rebuke; Surely I will pour out my spirit on you; I will make my words known to you. Because I have called and you refused, I have stretched out my hand and no one regarded, Because you disdained all my counsel, And would have none of my rebuke, I also will laugh at your calamity; I will mock when your terror comes, When your terror comes like a storm, And your destruction comes like a whirlwind, When distress and anguish come upon you. “Then they will call on me, but I will not answer; They will seek me diligently, but they will not find me. Because they hated knowledge And did not choose the fear of the Lord,”

‭‭Proverbs‬ ‭1‬:‭22‬-‭29‬ ‭NKJV‬‬

Complacency, like rotting mama, stinks! It robs us of our passion and joy. We lose our excitement for life and we fall into a sleep. Like Nebuchadnezzar, eating grass, like a wild animal for seven years, or like Moses tending sheep for 40 years, or even Israel, wondering in the wilderness for 40 years; when we don’t obey God, he gives us over to serve our fears. Once fear become our god we will wish we had listened to God, and followed him when He told us what to do. Do we think it won't happen to us? What will wake us from our slumber? 

Even David, the man after God’s own heart, fell into complacency and it led to lying, adultery, and murder. The easiest way to test our complacency is by gauging our passion. Do you need an affair with another man’s wife to feel alive? Do we dig our own cisterns, because we no longer have a spring of living water welling upmwithin us? Are we still passionate about where God is taking us? Are we living in pursuit of our divine calling in Christ Jesus? God will bring the blessing of a great job when we follow Him, but if He calls us to walk away from its assurance, and that great insurance, to follow Him, can we leave it all behind? Is there anything in your life you’re not willing to give up, when God calls you to walk away? We may fear losing our “security” our paycheck, our position, our friend group; but is that where we find peace, happiness, and joy? Is that where we find our hope, and security? If so, we’re already complacent. We’re already poor, wretched, blind and naked. We are in our culture like a fish in water. We don’t see it, we don’t taste it, but we’re a part of it. We have to work at being transformed, and become different from it. Otherwise, we will be conformed by the pattern of this world. Now we wouldn’t say, “Jesus isn’t coming back, but we can live like it. We can live without expectation of it, without looking for it - consumed by the cares, worries, and pleasure of this life.