Take the Wheel

Now you’ve pulled into that full service station. You’ve got enough fuel to keep going. You’re ready to get back on the road and keep driving.

You put the key in the ignition and put the car in gear. As you’re about to move your foot from the break to the gas pedal, you look up. The attendant is still standing there. You’re confused. He already did his job of filling your gas tank, and you paid. What else could he possibly want? So you step on the gas and pull out, leaving the attendant standing there.

Why would the attendant still be standing there? There could be two reasons (at least that I can think of). Number one: he wants to talk to you some more, to get to know you more. (Yes, I know that would be strange in today’s society.) Number two: there’s more that he can do to prepare you for your journey.

Now, back to your driving. You've got a full tank of gas. You are fully capable of continuing to drive. Well, at least you thought so. You forgot that you needed power steering fluid. When you try to turn, it's much harder than it should be. Then you look at your windshield. Suddenly, it seems filthy. Even in the few places you can see, it's difficult and obstructed by all the dust and dead flies on the window. You have to slow down drastically to avoid crashing. Then you look down at your dashboard. The oil light is on, and you have no clue how long it's been on. That's when you feel the gears in your car start locking into place. Even though the car has the fuel to keep going, it's resisting movement.

That's when you look up at your rearview mirror. You're still fairly close to the gas station. That's when you see him. The attendant is still sitting there waiting on you. He knows you're about to come back.

Again, that attendant waiting for you to return is God. When you leave your time with Him, He stays. He stays because He wants more time with you. He wants to know you better. And He knows that you need more from Him.

It's important to stay full of God's Love. His Love give you the energy and the ability you need to keep moving. But His Love does so much more than that. In a sense, God's Love can be your fuel, your power steering fluid, your oil and your window cleaner. You just have to let Him work on all those areas of your life.

There are times during your walk with God that you're going to need to change directions. When you're spending time with God, that change of directions is much easier. We're confident in His direction and our ability to hear from Him. We're confident in our ability to follow what He has told us to do. No matter how much resistance we face from other people, God's Love is there to bless us and help us make that turn. It's like our power steering fluid.

No matter where you are in life, you need direction. You need to know when to turn or when to continue in the direction you're headed. But without someone telling you where to go and when, it can get hard. More than one decision might seem like the right one. No decision may seem right. That's another reason we need to spend time with God. He is our window washer. God is the only one who knows where each path will lead us if we take it. So when we listen to Him, He'll make it clear where He wants us to go and how to get there. He'll show us the next step on our journeys. We won't have to slow down to try to figure out where to go. We'll be able to hear His direction right away when we spend time with Him.

Then there's those directions God gives us that we don't want to follow. He tells us something that scares us or that completely goes against all our plans. Or it just doesn't make sense. If we're not spending time with Him, not receiving a continual outpouring of His Love, we'll lock up. Even if we can see where He wants us to go and we can tell that He's making it possible, we resist. We quit moving because we don't want to go where He's taking us. But when we spend time with Him, we learn to trust Him. We know that He Loves us too much to send us somewhere we'll hate or somewhere we won't succeed. We learn to trust that His plans are better than we can imagine and that they're truly good for us. So no matter how much we don't want to, we'll trust His plans and direction, His Love, enough to obey. We won't lock up when He tells us to go those places we don't want to go. We'll run like a well-oiled machine.

God wants to do all that for us. He wants to give us enough Love, wants us to experience His Love, so much so that we stay full. We keep coming back so we stay full of Him. We keep coming back so He can help us through those tough times. So He can give us clear direction. So we'll obey His direction. But He wants more than that.

He wants that time with us so He can have a relationship with us. He never wants us to leave Him. But He knows that we can't just stay in one place forever. And if we did, it would defeat our purpose as His children. We're supposed to be a witness to other people, so we can't always stay alone with God.

That's why God asks to be a constant part of our lives. When we pull away from the station, when we leave that time alone with Him, He still wants to be with us. We need to let Him into the car. And since He's the one who really knows what He's doing anyway, we may as well move over and let Him take the wheel. Let Him not only take care of our lives, but control them. That's when we'll really stay full of Him.