March 18, 2021
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Oh, give me a break. It's not like I'm the only man in the world with this control thing. I mean, it's probably part of our wiring to be in control, huh? Like driving. If you've got four guys traveling together, you usually have four people who want to drive, but that makes the front seat awfully crowded. When a family's going on a long trip, many men make it very clear, "I'll drive." I'm one of those guys who doesn't like to ride very much. I do like to drive. But a while back, I learned a valuable lesson about this "must drive" neurosis. We had an all-day trip ahead of us and I had a full day of preparation for speaking and radio programs. I find that's hard to do with a steering wheel in your hand. Yeah, something the National Safety Council would not be excited about. So my wife drove the whole trip while I buried myself in my work. I got so much done!
I'm Ron Hutchcraft and I want to have A Word With You today about "The Peace of Releasing the Wheel."
I learned a lesson that day that I've applied to a number of other trips. You get so much more done when someone else is driving. Great things happen when you finally let go of the wheel and let someone else take it. Especially if the someone else is the One who was supposed to be driving all along. Yeah, that would be the God who gave you your life. He's supposed to be driving your life.
But we'd rather do the driving ourselves. Oh, sure, we don't mind having God as a passenger in our life. It's nice to have Him along. Just as long as He doesn't have the wheel. And me driving the life that God gave me is exactly what the Bible means when it talks about our "sin" - me driving when God was supposed to. Taking my life where I want it to go instead of where He created it to go. Doing what I feel like doing with my life instead of living as I was made to live. If you're wondering why you never seem to get to the destination you've been looking for, if you're wondering why you feel lost, why there have been costly crashes, it's because the wrong person is driving.
Here's how the Bible describes how we get lost and then get stuck on a road that's going nowhere. It's in Isaiah 53:6, our word for today from the Word of God. "We all, like sheep, have gone astray; each of us has turned to his own way." Turning to our own way means we are literally turning our back to God, the author of our life. The issue of control now becomes a life-or-death issue. Because if we insist on driving, our life will inevitably go over the cliff into an awful eternity without God, all because we had to be in control - because we had to drive.
Thank God, He did what it took to make it possible for us to turn around. To be forgiven instead of condemned. To go to heaven instead of hell. That Bible verse about us going our way concludes with God's loving answer: "The Lord has laid on Him (that's talking about Jesus) the iniquity (or the wrongdoing) of us all." The verse before it tells what it took for us to have a chance to live instead of die. Listen to this: "He was pierced for our transgressions, he was crushed for our iniquities; the punishment that brought us peace was on Him." That day Jesus allowed them to hang Him on a cross, He was absorbing all the punishment for all the sinning that you've ever done. Because that's how much He loves you.
And now you have an opportunity to have every sin of your life erased from God's book, and trade hell for heaven. Jesus comes into your life when you tell Him, as a song once said, "Jesus, take the wheel." You put your trust in Him because He gave His life for you. He doesn't ride - He drives. It's time to give Him the wheel.
If you want to begin this relationship with him, a great place for you to find out how to do that is our website. Would you go there? It's ANewStory.com.
You've been driving long enough. It's time to let Jesus drive. You'll have this wonderful peace, you'll go where you were created to go, and your final destination - it will be awesome.