The Ministries of Ann Doupont

Speeding Down the Highway of Life

     If we are driving down a highway going 80 mph, what are the possible consequences for speeding?

     Possibly the first thing that comes to mind for most people is that if they are caught, they will get a ticket. Also, it could cause an accident. If there is a blow-out at that speed, it could be serious.

     Since the laws of the land say to drive a certain speed at certain places, if we exceed the posted speed limit, we are in rebellion to the law of the land. Quite probably, most of us have done this. I know that I have, at times, been in such a hurry that I drove faster than the posted speed limit.

     The Bible tells us to submit to the ordinances of the land. It is not for our own sake, and safety, that we are to do this; but for the Lord’s. I have found at times that I have unintentionally driven faster than the speed limit, and at such times I have needed to slow down.

     Another thing that can happen when speeding is that we will find ourselves at the wrong place at the wrong time. We will arrive at a place ahead of where we would have been had we not speeded.

     Many years ago, I found my thoughts racing. I asked the Father to slow down my thinking so that I could think straight. My thoughts used to jump from one to another. Upon asking Him to slow down my thinking, I began to be able to hear His voice more clearly.

     Sometimes, in our lives, we are trying to do too many things – things that God never called us to do. We need a time out to evaluate whether or not He wants these things completed, and when.

     There really is enough time in our days to complete what needs to be completed. Sometimes there is even more than enough time.

     I have heard some people say that they do not have enough time to pray. If they rearranged their schedules, and eliminated the many unnecessary tasks, they would find that they really do have enough. It starts with prayer and seeking God. When we have His thoughts on things, they flow much more freely.

     If you find that you have been speeding along on the highway of your life, you need to slow down. Otherwise, you might get a ticket (sickness), or get into an accident (injury), or be at the wrong place at the wrong time. God does not want His people stressed all the time. That usually happens when trying to fit too many things into one “time slot.”

     When we seek Him first, and eliminate things that are unnecessary, we get surprised at just how much time we really do have.

Growth Possible

     In thinking about how to spell a certain word, I knew that they were both right but in different applications. If I chose a right spelling for a word but used it in the wrong application of it, that would not make the spelling of that word incorrect. It would just not fit correctly where I had placed it.

    A commonly misspelled word is “it’s.” This word is a contraction – a combination of two words, “it” and “is.” The apostrophe is representative of a missing letter. It is not proper English to use it in the place of the possessive pronoun, “its.”

     Our spell-checkers allow either word, as each of them are correct spellings of words. With improper placement, they are grammatically incorrect, but not all spell checkers are sophisticated enough to decipher every error.

     In hearing from God, we may think that He means one thing at first. We understood differently as a child than we did as we grew up.

     Our understanding of our environment changed as well as our vocabulary. Unless we stagnated and our growth was stunted somehow, we are not the same as we were when we were first born.

     The same is to be true with our new birth experience. As we eat a proper diet, drink plenty of water, exercise and rest, proper growth will occur naturally. The same is true for our spiritual growth.

     We need to eat right (God’s Word), drink plenty of pure water (allow His Spirit to flow in and through us), exercise (our gifts and our faith) and rest (take breaks from all activity and reflect on what we have done and what we have learned). It is then that we will continue to grow and God’s plan will not be thwarted, but fulfilled in our lives.