Cruise Control

I’ve been convicted several years ago by God about my driving. I tend to drive too quickly when I’m on the highway. I drive maybe five to ten miles an hour faster than the posted speed limit, but that’s still speeding. It’s been a while now but I’m very conscious of the fact that I’ve not mastered this area. My present car tends to go quicker and I don’t feel it like I used to in my old car. My old car couldn’t reach the speed limit if its life depended on it.

During a long trip on the highway, most people set their cruise control. It helps fight leg fatigue. I thought what better way to assure the fact I don’t speed by setting the cruise control whenever I’m on the highway, whether it’s just a few exits or not.

What if in life we could set cruise control on the areas of our lives we struggle with. We can. Another name for that is a boundary. Some people have trouble with boundaries. They feel stifled and restricted. They feel their freedom is taken away. Boundaries aren’t set to stifle us. Boundaries protect us from ourselves.

Alcoholics are told not to have just one drink. Why? Because one drink could lead to another and another. Is drinking wrong for everyone? Of course not. Freedom comes when you know your boundaries and respect them.

Another dynamic to boundary setting is where we are in our walk with the Lord. I’ve experienced in the past several years that what you can get away with in the outer courts, you can’t get away in the inner courts. The priests in the Old Testament would tie a rope around their waist before going into the holy of holies, because if there was sin in their lives they would drop dead. The rope was used to pull him out.

Sometimes our boundaries are pulled tighter by the Lord, but this is not a bad thing. To me it denotes promotion. Like the priests of old, the closer you get to the Spirit of the living God the safer your boundaries should be.

© Nadine Z. 2007

Stay tuned for the flip side of Cruise Control . . .