Strong Winds, Slow Down

I was driving down the motorway and a sign kept coming up in big letters “Strong winds, slow down”. I could feel the wind tugging the steering wheel as I drove.

The message got me thinking about my walk with God and how sometimes there can be a “strong wind” to the things I am doing but it doesn’t necessarily mean it is a good thing, or indeed a God thing! It is very easy to get carried along even in something that seems positive or you presume is a good idea.

In 2 Chronicles 16:12, it says, “In the 39th year of his reign, King Asa developed a serious food disease. Yet even with the severity of his disease, he did not seek the Lord’s help but turned only to his physicians.”

King Asa then died.

King Saul and King Ahab both went to war without enquiring first of the Lord and it was a disaster.

In our lives it is easy to get carried along. We get carried along in making decisions, in conversations, in all kinds of ideas that seem good in the moment.

If you are like me and tend, by nature, to be a bit of a rusher, going slow seems counter intuitive. Strong winds seem like a great thing because we can rush even more productively. But God just never seems to be in a rush. We need to learn to walk at His pace not our own.

Since reading my sign on the motorway, I am reminded to not just go along with something because it seems good, but to keep leaning into my Father God and asking Him. Each day I like to invite Him to be at the centre of all I will be doing and saying - to give me a nudge to slow down and listen to Him when things just get carried away.

I encourage us all to be aware of strong winds of “great ideas” today, but to slow down and take those little moments in our heart to listen into our Father. His ways are always the very best for us.