Take your Life Off adaptive cruise
Have you ever stepped back from your life and wondered how did I get here?
The older I get the faster and faster time seems to fly by. It used to be weeks flying by and I wondered what happened when my kids were little. When they got older, it was months. Now with the kids out of the house, its seasons. Entire seasons seem to fly by in a wink.
So often we only reflect on our lives at the end of the year or monumental events like weddings or funerals.
I’m here to challenge you to do it every single day.
Recently I shared with you guys that I got a new vehicle. It has a bunch of features my old one didn’t have. One of them is called “adaptive cruise.”
My vehicle locks in on the vehicle in front of me and will adapt to the same speed even if I’ve set cruise at a higher speed. It maintains a specific distance from the vehicle in front of me.
Sounds kind of relaxing in theory right?
Set it and forget it. Just calmly cruise my way into the city.
I thought it was fine too, until one day when I was paying more attention to my audio book than the road. Suddenly I realized I was going over 15 below the speed limit. Other cars were whizzing past me and I was stuck behind an extremely elderly gentleman that probably should not be driving at all.
If I didn’t pass this guy and get back up to normal speed I was going to be late!
I had inadvertently let another person set the pace of my journey.
I couldn’t help but think of the parallels to our journey with Christ.
Who you surround yourself with matters.
Are you surrounded by people that are actively seeking Jesus in every aspect of their lives? Or are they just going through the motions of what they think being a Christian looks like?
Are you surrounding yourself with other believers that are encouraging you to step on the gas a bit and come up higher in areas God wants you to grow?
Hebrews 10:24
And let us consider how to spur one another on to love and good deeds.
The phrase “let us consider” in the Greek does not mean give it a bit of thought. It means “pay intense attention, contemplate the matter thoroughly and broadly to the point of complete understanding.”
Whoa.
There is no room for adaptive cruise in your walk with Christ.
So why not? Why can’t we kick back and just enjoy being saved?
I’ll give you 4 big reasons:
1 The Days Are Evil
Ephesians 5:15-17
Pay careful attention, then, to how you walk, not as unwise but as wise, redeeming the time, because the days are evil. Therefore do not be foolish, but understand what the Lord’s will is.
Notice in this passage that GOD is not redeeming the time WE have to redeem the time. WE have to be good stewards of our time, talents, resources, relationships etc. WE have to make the most of our opportunities.
2 Sanctification Is a Process
1 Thessalonians 5:23
Now may the God of peace Himself sanctify you completely, and may your entire spirit, soul, and body be kept blameless at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ.
There are always new levels of becoming more like Christ. We are not fully sanctified as soon as we accept the gracious gift of salvation. Sanctification is the process of being more and more set apart for God in all we do.
It’s growing in the LORD, it’s spiritual maturing.
And the pace of that is not set by the people around you. It’s set by the Holy Spirit as He keeps convicting you of areas that need change. no adaptive cruise here.
3 We Need To Complete The Work God Has Set Before Us To Do
John 17:4
I have glorified You on earth by accomplishing the work You gave Me to do.
Ephesians 2:10
For we are God’s workmanship, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance as our way of life.
These "good works" being talked of here, are already baked into our life! We just have to notice them and do them.
Doing the work that God set out for us to do isn’t about doing more, it’s about doing the things that matter in God’s economy. (and I’ve got a special resource to help you with this!)
This leads me to the 4th big reason to not live on adaptive cruise…
4 People Are Waiting For What God Assigned You To Do
Matthew 5:16
In the same way, let your light shine before men, that they may see your good deeds and glorify your Father in heaven.
This world is ruled by darkness. It’s our job to bring light into the dark places. And if we’ve got adaptive cruise on we are not going to be compelled to do that.
People are waiting for your encouragement.
People are waiting for a glimpse of Christ in you.
People are waiting to experience a sliver of hope and Christians should be the most hope filled people in the world.
Again, I don’t think that living purposefully means living totally stressed to the point where our hair starts falling out. God did not design us to live that way. Living all out for God does not mean saying yes to so many things that we end up in the doctor’s office because we’re sick.
It means being careful of what we say yes to.
So I created a free 5-day devotional series to help you explore what God might be wanting you to say yes to.
You can find it here: ignite.passionatepurposeschool.com/
Friend, I encourage you to take your life off of adaptive cruise. Urgently ask God to reveal to you where you’ve been cruising, or where have you been driving on autopilot so that you can step on the gas and live with passionate purpose. 💙
Dorothy