WHERE IS GOD IN YOUR LIFE?

Imagine your life was like a car.

Throughout one’s life, one embarks on small journeys that are supposed to lead him to his ultimate destination. But whether or not you get to your eternal destination is determined by one thing - where God is in your "car."

Is He outside?

Is God watching us drive our lives from the outside like a spectator in a car race? He can only watch but He has no access to what is going on inside of us. We don't hear His voice. We go on in our lives without God in the picture. And the only thing He is expected to do is to cheer us on.

Those who are in this situation are like cars going around in circles, lacking a clear direction and purpose. Consuming gas but not getting where they were meant to go. Travelling but not getting there.

This happened for the Israelites in a time when they had no king so everyone just did what was right in their own eyes (Judges 21:25). The same can happen with us today. If God is outside of our car, we will just do everything according to what is right in our eyes.

God is not automatically inside of us. If we want God to be inside of our car, we need to make a personal decision to let Him in.

Jesus said “Behold, I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears My voice and opens the door, I will come in to him and dine with him, and he with Me” (Revelation 3:20).

But maybe you already have a walk with God. He may already be inside your “car.” But remember that there are a number of parts to a car.

Is He in the trunk?

When we travel, we often put our heavy load and unimportant stuff in the trunk of our cars. There are times when we treat God like a load we carry along. We put Him in our trunk when our walk with Him simply becomes a burden, a mere obligation to fulfill.

Also, people do not have any idea what is in our trunk because this part of the car is hidden. Sometimes our Christianity is like that, people do not see Christ in us because we have kept Him hidden in our lives. We only bring Him out when we need Him.

This was the case when the Israelites fought their battle against the Philistines. After being defeated by their enemy, they decided to bring the ark of the covenant into their camp hoping that God would deliver them from the hand of the Philistines.

“And when the people had come into the camp, the elders of Israel said, “Why has the Lord defeated us today before the Philistines? Let us bring the ark of the covenant of the Lord from Shiloh to us, that when it comes among us it may save us from the hand of our enemies.” (1 Samuel 4:3)

During that time, the Israelites were so corrupt and not really walking in the ways of God. The only time they brought God out was when they needed Him, treating Him like an amulet. As a result, they were defeated again and the ark of the covenant which carried the glory of God was captured by the enemy (1 Samuel 4:4-11).

This is a warning for us that if our Christianity is occasional, just like that of the Israelites, we will also lack power and our lives will end up in defeat.

Is He in the passenger seat?

We always like the idea of having somebody on our passenger seat to keep us company while on a journey. We like having someone read the map for us, telling us which route and direction we should take.

We like having someone to help us with the things we need as we drive. But no matter how helpful our companion is, we still decide where to go and determine which route to take.

The same is true when we have God in our passenger seat. We experience His presence in our lives. He gives us joy and peace. His presence is our protection. He leads us to the path He wants us to take. But we are still on the driver’s seat. We still decide where to go. We decide whether or not to listen to His instructions.

Sometimes we ask for His help just so we can accomplish what we want to accomplish.

We pray for His blessing. We pray for His favor. But we have forgotten to ask His will. 

God may be in our lives but it’s still all about us. We are only interested with our own agenda and not His.

When God is on the passenger seat, life is not restful. It is always full of striving because we are still on the driver seat. We are the ones who still make the final decision. It is full of striving because we try to be our own navigators when God did not design us to be such. Only God is the perfect, all-knowing navigator of our lives.

Is God in the driver seat?

It takes trust and obedience to have God in the driver’s seat. Do we trust Him enough to take the wheels and drive us to our destination? Do we trust Him with a route that He has chosen for us?

Sometimes God chooses to drive through mountains. He sometimes takes us to heights that we cannot reach on our own. He does so just so we realize that it is not us who is on the driver seat, it is Him.

He is in control.

He also takes us to valleys which signifies those low, painful, and dark moments of our lives. But the Lord just makes us go through them, not stay in them.

When we allow the Lord to be in the driver’s seat, those mountains and valleys that we pass through in life will be like passageways - they too, shall pass.

So where is God in your life?

Is He outside? Is He in the trunk? In the passenger seat? Or is He in the driver seat?

If you’ve not yet allowed Him to be on the driver seat, there’s still hope. You may have gone so deep into your self-created winding road but if you give the steering wheel to the Lord, He can take you to His straight path once more.

There is always hope in Him.

We need to realize that we were never made to navigate our way through life on our own. We were designed to have somebody directing our path. It’s not yet too late to allow God to be on the driver seat.

We can trust Him that He will bring us to our eternal destination where we will find the true love, joy, and peace that we’ve been looking for all our lives.