Speed Limits

For the past few weeks as I have been driving to and fro from different places I have noticed one thing to be very common about my daily life in the car. My conscience has been blasted every time that I have gone over the speed limit. Now, to be honest, I really try not to speed in the first place because I think that as believers we ought to follow all of the rules and laws set up by society unless they are against the Word of God; so that being my conviction I strive to honor that as best I can by the help of the Holy Spirit. That is why it surprised me when this began happening. I mean it has been very unusual to the point that when I am praying or thinking of something else and just kind of coasting along, going down a hill, or something like that and not really paying too close of attention to the speedometer when I go over the speed limit my conscience will go crazy, I'll feel like my prayers are being hindered and my thoughts are blocked from flowing with the Holy Spirit, and I'd be afraid of getting a ticket. As soon as I would slow down back to the speed limit or below though, my conscience would clear, my prayers and thoughts would be be flowing with the Holy Spirit again and I'd have no fear of getting a ticket. Now this may seem odd to you, as it did to me, and to be honest again, it has been kind of annoying and troublesome as I wondered and prayed about what is going on, and I kind of knew where God was headed with it but I wasn't sure and I had no clarity into things...until today. I finally understand what God has been trying to teach me.

As I was driving up the hill close to where I'm living today after work I was going up a hill which is posted at 25mph and I was going about 6 or 7 and when I realized it and my conscience was going crazy and I asked the Lord what was going on, because I knew it just wasn't that I was speeding, and He finally revealed it to me. It has to do with something that has been a theme of my life for a long, long time, but I think this is one of the more significant times that I came to understand what this aspect of the Christian life means. Galatians 5:16-24 says this (which is the major part of what God has been trying to get through to me these past few weeks), "But I say, walk by the Spirit, and you will not gratify the desires of the flesh. For the desires of the flesh are against the Spirit, and the desires of the Spirit are against the flesh, for these are opposed to each other, to keep you from doing the things you want to do. But if you are led by the Spirit, you are not under the law. Now the works of the flesh are evident: sexual immorality, impurity, sensuality, idolatry, sorcery, enmity, strife, jealousy, fits of anger, rivalries, dissensions, divisions, envy, drunkenness, orgies, and things like these. I warn you, as I warned you before, that those who do such things will not inherit the kingdom of God. But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control; against such things there is no law. And those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires. If we live by the Spirit, let us also walk by the Spirit. Let us not become conceited, provoking one another, envying one another." Here's the connection, when we walk by the Spirit, which in essence is walking in obedience to God, the Spirit produces the fruits righteousness within us, but when we walk according to the flesh we walk in disobedience toward God. The results of obedience also produce a clear conscience, an unhindered prayer life and thoughts that flow with the Spirit of God, as well as no fear of punishment, for against the fruit of the Spirit there is no law. When we walk according to the deeds of the flesh though we have a guilty conscience, a hindered prayer and thought life, and we walk around with the fear of punishment. The lesson for me was greatly this: If I walk by the Spirit I will produce the peaceful fruit of righteousness, but if I walk outside of the Spirit, in disobedience, outside of the ways and boundaries that God has set for me, then I will produce the disparities of walking by the flesh. I pray that I may find myself more and more walking by the Spirit and not by the flesh, and may you find it to be the same thing too.