Choosing to Drive

February 8, 2017January 30, 2017 / The WheatandTares

autoblog.com

In driving school, you must choose to hit the brake or accelerator depending on where you need to go and how fast you need to get there. You hit the brake to avoid mishaps, accidents, or when you are feeling unsure, and you need to create a little space and time to think and consider your next move. You hit the accelerator when you want to get somewhere a little faster or when you are feeling more confident in your position and the vehicle which you are driving.

In our relationship with God, we have these same choices. When He gives direction, we can push the accelerator and “ride like the wind,” totally depending on His leading. We can hit the brakes, believing we know better or just allowing our fears and doubts to override. When God says, “It’s not time,” we have the choice to hit the gas or slam the brakes, choosing to allow Him to guide or our own wisdom to rule the day.

In every moment and at every command, we have a choice to remain in the car behind the wheel, with God as our guide, or to get out of the car and leave the path when times get too tough. It is all in our choosing, but if we will stay closer to His hand and listen more closely to His voice our choices can render better results. If we will seek His understanding rather than our own, our end destination will be less hazardous and more beneficial.

So, ask yourself today, “Who will be my guide? … To whom will I listen and obey? … To whom will I surrender my will and my way?”

The choice is yours…

http://www.xarisxpressions.org/let-the-lord-determine-your-path/proverbs-169/

Not Equipped

October 19, 2016September 20, 2016 / The WheatandTares / 2 Comments

A couple of years ago, we had a truck that had off road suspension, but it did not have four-wheel drive. However, we found ourselves going straight up the side of a mountain in this truck…or at least we attempted to. My husband tried to get the truck to cooperate. The front tires went up, but the back tired started spinning in the mud, and we started sliding backwards. He tried once more, and more sliding occurred. All the while, I am holding my breath, because I can visually see, in my mind, the whole truck getting completely vertical and then flipping straight over, with all four of us in tow! He tried once more with the same results; so, he allowed the truck to roll backwards, and we didn’t go up that hill, because our truck simply wasn’t equipped to do so…

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I think, sometimes in our Christian walk, we can find ourselves in this same predicament. We are attempting to go up and over a mountain that we, in our human strength, are just not equipped to travel. We try, and we try, and we keep ending up with the same results: sliding backwards or, if we push it too far, flipping over into a ditch! We are not equipped to travel some mountains, because God hasn’t yet prepared us, we’re attempting to go over the wrong mountain, or we are simply attempting it without His help!

There are many things in our faith that God has to prepare us, strengthen us and teach us before we are ready to face it. When we get ahead of Him, we end up making a mess of things, and often, we walk away from the trial, bruised and wounded when we didn’t have to be. Waiting on God for our preparation only undergirds our cause. If you’re in the middle of a process, but you long to jump ahead, can I encourage you today? Just wait on Him. He will bring you to that mountain at His proper time, and when you follow His lead, He will give you the exact tools you need to conquer it!

Sometimes, we are trying to climb a mountain that God never called us to climb. It might be someone else’s mountain. It might be a “mountain” in our past that we keep trying to hold on to, but He has already forgive and told us to move beyond. It might be a mountain that we want to climb over, but it’s not the direction in which He is leading us. If we will listen to and follow His voice, rather than our own, we will have plenty of mountains to trek upon without challenging ourselves with the ones at which we’re not suppose to be!

Other times, we have simply attempted to scale a mountain without His help. Just as my truck didn’t have four-wheel drive, there are times in our lives, when we try to accomplish things in our own strength, and we leave Him behind. Then, we find ourselves worn out and burn out, wondering where God is and why isn’t He helping us through this.

If we are to climb the mountains that we will surely face in this life, we must be prepared, we must ascend the right ones, and we must have His assistance and lead to conquer them! With God by our side, there is nothing we can’t accomplish, and oh, the view (and rest) we will receive once we reach the top!

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Map It Out

May 23, 2016May 23, 2016 / The WheatandTares / 3 Comments

Coming home from a trip this week made me think of road maps, road trips and directions. How many of you know, if you don’t have a good road map (or a good GPS these days), you can get lost in a hurry, especially when going through a big city. This can be so frustrating, and depending on where you are, it can be downright dangerous! You might eventually get back on the right path, but oh, the time that can be wasted and the costs that may be paid!

There are, also, different paths that may lead you to the same destination. Some are through busy intersections and congested towns, and others are down country roads with beautiful sceneries of pasture lands and rolling hills. Finding the right one for you can make all the difference in how you feel by the end of the journey, whether you are refreshed and at peace or worn out and frazzled.

Just as you need a good road map for driving through a new city and for getting to a new destination, each of us need a good road map to make it safely through life. You can venture on your life’s journey without one, or you can even appear to be the more “flexible type” who frequently changes your source of guidance from one to another; however, a lot of valuable time can be disappear, the cost can be exorbitant and the loss, sometimes, can be irrevocable. It’s so much better to start out at the beginning with the right one.

God has given us the best “road map” we could ever find to help guide our lives. Some might try to argue that the Bible doesn’t answer every question we will have, and they might even make a list of things it doesn’t specifically talk about. I have to say, they would almost be right; however, I have found that the Word of God gives us principles for every situation, every question, and every dilemma we encounter in this life. The precise answer may not be spelled out, but the principles are crystal clear! He gave us this Word for a purpose, and that purpose is to help guide us through this life, into a deeper relationship with Him, and to our final destination with Him.

We don’t have to search hard, and we don’t have to spend a lot of money to find it. If we will simply open this book, read it and seek His guidance through it, we will find ourselves on a much better path than the one we can search out on our own!

A Child’s Perspective

January 5, 2015January 2, 2015 / The WheatandTares / 4 Comments

I love to see pictures that a child has taken, especially a younger child, like maybe between the ages of four and ten years old. Have you ever taken a moment to look? My son took this picture the other day, and I thought it turned out incredible. The cabin is totally focused; yet, all of the surroundings are completely blurred.

This picture created a thought within me… “What if we approached our lives like this?” Living life with one focus and one focus alone. Carrying on through our daily routines with one main goal, one desired end. Living a life in which the central goal is in complete focus while the surroundings are just sort of out of focus. Having that main focus being Jesus at the center of our life.

Too often, we go through life with so many goals, so many desires, so many ambitions that, too often, it seems the central focus gets blurred, and we get tuned into one thing and then another. We move from one agenda to another, many times, forsaking the real purpose we are even here on this planet. When we have too many agendas, too many goals, too many desires to be met, we become scattered, distracted, even chaotic in our witness and our testimony.

When we keep “the main thing the main thing,” HE is able to bring all the other things into the right focus. HE is able to show us the things which are needed and those things which are not. He is enabled to be the Lord of our lives, and the world turns to gray as it loses its hold on us.

In this new year, let us remember Who that central focus should be. Let us remember Who the one goal of our lives should be. Let us start this new year with one main thing, one goal, one central focus, JESUS, who will take us to higher heights, deeper depths and wider opportunities than we ever thought possible!

“Brothers and sisters, I do not consider myself yet to have taken hold of it. But one thing I do: Forgetting what is behind and straining toward what is ahead…” Philippians 3:13