Life Lessons on the Drive to Work

While the earth remaineth, seedtime and harvest, and cold and heat, and summer and winter, and day and night shall not cease.
 -- Genesis 8:22

I had to smile this morning. I came up to an intersection and got into the left turn lane. There was one car in front of me. The light changed. The car behind me must have been in a hurry. Instead of simply waiting for the light to turn green again (in fact, there is a protected left turn before the rest of the traffic can go), he decided to save some time and cut through the parking lot of the business on the corner.



The problem was, there was traffic on that street, and he wasn't able to make a left turn from the parking lot onto the street either. Meanwhile, the light changed. Since we had a protected left turn, the car in front of me, and several cars behind me were able to turn left before the signal changed.

What happened to the guy in a hurry? He ended up about 6 cars behind me instead of right behind me.

I couldn't help but think, this is what happens in our relationship with God. There is a path for our lives that has God's blessing. We can choose to take that path, or we can take another. God's blessing will still be on our lives, but the path that already has his blessing is usually easier to tread, and will get us to our destination faster. Our problem is that just like children with their earthly parents, we think we know better than God. Or, sometimes we just want to do it our way. So, we end up asking God to bless our path instead of taking the path he has already blessed.


This happened with Abram and Sarai too. (Genesis 16) They took matters into their own hands and created Ishmael rather than taking God's path; the one he had already blessed. Whether it was because they were impatient, or because they simply couldn't see how God could fulfill his promise to them, they thought they knew better than God.

We forget that the kingdom of God is based on seedtime and harvest. I propose that it is actually "Seed", "Time" and "Harvest". Certainly in the natural there is some time involved once the seed is planted before the harvest comes. We get impatient with God and want to speed up the process, but the truth is, in the spiritual realm the time between the seed and the harvest isn't dependent upon God, it's dependent upon us. We think we are waiting for God, but in fact, he's waiting for us.

Again, look at Abram and Sarai. The promise was made when Abram was 75 years old. He didn't have Isaac for 25 years. Was it because it took God that long to fulfill his promise? No! It was because Abram couldn't see himself as the father of many nations.

Neither shall thy name any more be called Abram, but thy name shall be Abraham; for a father of many nations have I made thee.
  --Genesis 17:5

So, when Abram was 99 years old, God changed his name to Abraham which means father of many nations. Now, everytime Abraham introduced himself to someone, he was calling himself a father of many nations. Everytime someone called out to him, they were calling him a father of many nations. Within a year, he and Sarah had the son of the promise, Isaac.

Once Abraham got on God's path of blessing, things happened pretty quickly. But, as long as he and Sarai were trying to make their own way, they made no progress. In fact, they made quite a mess of things that we still see the negative effects from today.

Blessed shalt thou be when thou comest in, and blessed shalt thou be when thou goest out.
  --Deuteronomy 28:6

Are you impatient waiting for God's blessings to show up in your life? Then look to see where you are not in alignment with his word. What are you calling yourself? Are you sick, tired, broke, discouraged?  Or are you blessed coming in and blessed going out? Get out of God's way. Say about yourself what the Word says about you, and watch as the blessings of the God chase you down and overtake you.