Road Closed

This week the main road to our neighborhood was closed for paving. One day I went out to the store and as I headed for home I had to stop and consider which way I would take. My normal way was going to have road construction and then ultimately be closed. I plotted another route in my mind and ultimately missed all the slow downs.

As I drove I considered the conscious effort I was having to make to get home. Normally I just go on habit and don’t think once about which way I need to go.

Have you ever had a pattern of thinking that you’d like to change? It’s very difficult isn’t it? You have all the good intentions yet somehow you find yourself going on habit. Next thing you know you’re driving down that same old road again!

Perhaps you’re like me and you know you really “shouldn’t” go down that road, so you put up a couple orange cones to catch your attention.

Once my dad and I were working at the clubhouse of a senior living neighborhood. We were putting a new floor in their mail room. We blocked the side door with some cones and I believe there was even a sign. It seemed pretty obvious that it was closed. Yet people still kept trying to come in! Why? Because they always come in that way!  

How often am I exactly like this! I put up a couple orange cones in my mind to remind myself not to worry, fear, etc. and yet when that moment of decision arrives I stamp on the gas and run right over those cones. Why? Because I always come in that way!

Orange cones are not enough; we need a road closed sign! No access!

Wanting to change isn’t enough to actually do it. We must CHOOSE!!! We in ourselves cannot change. We need the power of the Holy Spirit working in us to overcome our habits of thinking, but we must first choose, choose to stop, choose to turn around, and choose to receive His all sufficient grace and power to go another way. The Lord can't do anything until we choose to let Him. This means we may have to consciously think about which way we are going to go until His thoughts are our thoughts.

This week I had several opportunities to take the old habit road in my thinking but I kept remembering that sign at the end of our street. “Road Closed”. I gave myself no excuse! The Lord is the ruler of my mind and I will choose to allow Him to execute full authority there!
I told one of my siblings the other day, that you need to choose to believe the truth whether you "feel" it or not.
This is were it starts. Right here at the road closed sign. You may find yourself reading those words everyday for a while, but next you know, you won't have to turn around anymore, or read that sign, because you'll be long gone driving down the road of trust.

But put on the Lord Jesus Christ, and make no provision for the flesh to fulfill its lusts.

Romans 13:14