As I was driving into work today I had "All My Worship" by Chris Burns playing on my stereo just really looking forward to some peaceful time in the car with God. However, after being on the highway for a few miles I realized that even though I had my speed set at 65, I was getting passed by a lot of people. Of course the first thing that runs through my mind is, "maybe I should speed up?". But then I realized "no", I don't need to. I am running on time, I don't need to be earlier than I am and I don't need to just "keep up" with the others on the highway. And it was in the moment that God began to speak to me about this post.
I was thinking about how the enemy likes to come at us (especially before we come to Christ) and convince us that we must keep up with the rest of the world. If your young then maybe you feel as though you need to do what everyone else is school is doing, or party as much as everyone else, or just live a life of "fun" like everyone else. If your a parent maybe you are watching other parents and feeling like you need to mimic what they do with or for their kids. If you are on your job then maybe you feel like you need to work at the same speed or level as those around you, even if that's not how God built you. And of course just in life in general, we all have people who we may feel the need to "keep up with"...have what they have, do what they do. If the enemy can keep us thinking and feeling this way he can keep us in a never-ending chase or race that we don't even know why we are in. Distracted, not thinking clearly....just trying to keep up with everyone and everything around us. Unfortunately sometimes that mentality carries over into the church too. We see others who may be on a different spiritual level than we are and we feel like we need to get to where they are. Or their gifts are more mature than ours are at the time, so we feel like we need to speed that maturing process up. But I think all of these things are lies straight from the enemy to keep us at a place of un-thankfulness, discontentment, fear and even anxiety about our lives. He wants to convince us that we are't what or who "so and so" is, so we need to change. But I don't think that this is how God wants us to think AT ALL. I believe God wants us to put our focus only on Him and let Him show us the place and the pace that He wants our lives to be at. Our spiritual and our earthly lives. I believe it's when we take our focus off of Him, we get so caught up on things like who is "passing us up" in life....or who we are "passing up". Both are dangerous places to have your attention.
The first part of Philippians 4:6 says "Be anxious for nothing..." and Isaiah 26:3 says "You will keep him in perfect peace, whose mind is stayed on You, because he trusts in You". So it's very clear that the anxious feeling to keep up with everyone does not come from God. He simply wants our mind to be focused on Him and His desires for us... and in that we will find our peace.
If you have found yourself trying to play the "keep up" game, take a deep breath today and tell yourself it doesn't have to be this way. Give your "busyness" over to God and ask Him to help you filter out what comes from Him, and what you or the world has piled on you. Then REST in the fact that as long as you are keeping your mind stayed upon God, you CAN trust that He will take care of you and let you know exactly where HE wants you.
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