Were you driving today? Try and think of your drive to work
or wherever you were going and ask yourself how aware were you of your drive? Do
you even remember it? Did you break any laws?
I’d guess you probably
did.
Now picture in your mind that on the dash of your vehicle that
you have a counter, and every time you break a law it makes a loud buzz and
puts a strike against you. And I’m not talking about just some of the laws we
are more conscious of like speeding, or making a right hand turn on a red light
without stopping. I’m talking about the ones you do every day and don’t even
think about like shoulder checking before changing lanes, using your signal
light or glancing at your phone to see what notification you just received. How
many points would you have against you at the end of the day?
Remember back when you took your road test for your driver’s
license? You had an instructor in the seat beside you watching your every move
with a clipboard and paper in hand marking down every mistake you made. What a
nerve racking experience that was for me. But you knew, if you could endure and
just get past this one test you’d never have to worry about somebody
scrutinizing your driving like that ever again (unless your wife is in the car
but I digress).
Now what if every one of the buzzes of the counter
disqualified you as a driver? Or even worse, that you had to make some sort of restitution
for every law you broke? Would any of us still have a driver’s license?
We live in a strange system where we all know that we break
many traffic laws every day. And frankly, we do it because we know we can get
away with it…until somebody is watching us. So when you least expect it you get
pulled over by the police and you get a ticket as a punishment and a reminder of
the law.
Now imagine God, a being who is in all places at all times.
Who knows our thoughts before we think them. You are in your body, driving
through life, just going from point A to point B. God is the driver instructor,
the police and judge all rolled into one. But even worse than any of the law
officials he also knows your thoughts, your intentions before you do them. He
knows when you make that little white lie to your spouse, when you lust with
your eyes and want what your neighbor has.
Do you have a counter in your head? One that buzzes every time
you do something you know you shouldn’t? Maybe you and you’ve heard the buzzer
so many times that you’ve accepted it and embraced it as a way of life. I’ve
been there, I’ve lived that way, and it’s not fun. In fact it is downright
depressing like your living under a cloud.
What if I told you that there was a way to rip that sin
counter right out and? No more guilt, no more shame no more cloud. You can wake
up in the morning with a smile on your face because you know this is going to
be a good day. And at the end of the day when you lay your head on your pillow
your mind is quiet and at peace. Sounds too good to be true, right?
But it is true! You
see before we know God, we are under something called “the law of sin and death”
(how’s that for a light fluffy title?), but God sent his son Jesus to take the
power of that law away. That’s why we Christians
talk about Jesus as our saviour. This
law had us in its grips and we were condemned to a whole lot of bad stuff, but
then we turned to him and we weren’t. It’s freedom baby!
So then why don’t more Christians live like someone who was
set free? Good question. I think the problem is that our brains can’t catch up
to what has happened. The bible says that we were given a new heart when we
chose to make Jesus lord of our lives, but the real work comes in accepting it.
But here’s the thing; as we accept it, we start to live it.
And then we can’t help but give it away.
I pray for you today, that you can have rest for your weary
mind. That even if you can’t accept that there is freedom for you, that you can
at least get excited about the possibility. “But Joe, you don’t know what I’ve
done”, yep I’ve hear that before and even said it myself to others when I was
in the pits. But it doesn’t matter. Here’s the best part, you don’t even have
to change your life! Wow! He wants you JUST AS YOU ARE right now, addictions,
pain and all.
If you’ve read this and you think God inspired me to write
this for you please reply. I’d be happy to talk to you more about it because I don’t
know who I wrote this for.
