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Monday 23 September 2024

Top Gear

 

Heading southeast for my retreat last week, I sensed God wanting me to keep the radio off and start listening. He had things to show me as we went.

As I downshifted to go up a steep brae, the sentence flashed into my mind: ‘You can’t go up a hill in top gear.’ You have to downshift, especially if you’re bearing a load.

While this seems like good, practical advice, what is the ‘God message’ in it?

I thought of Elijah, fleeing for his life from Jezebel after God’s defeat of the prophets of Baal. (1 Kings 19). The tender love that God shows Elijah is so beautiful, sending him an angel with food and a blessing of rest before recommissioning him and giving him a helper.

I’ve not taken on a Jezebel, nor stepped out on a limb for the Lord. But sometimes the uphill brae can be gradual and long. The enemy is not Jezebel but it can be losing heart, growing weary and losing energy.

God was in charge of my retreat. His gentle hand was on me as I stepped aside on the hill and found a place of rest, of beauty and refreshment. He renewed my spirit as he restored my faith that he is indeed in charge of all the details of my life.

We all need a rhythm of pauses, short pauses daily and longer pauses at intervals. May I remember the lesson that I can’t go up a hill in top gear.

 

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