Fast and Furious — Aneel Aranha

Hello and welcome to The Hope Podcast. I’m Aneel Aranha. Today we are going to talk about how God steps on the gas when he takes his foot off the brakes he has applied to our lives.    

Every now and then, God brings us to a complete halt. This allows us to take stock of our lives and think about where we are headed. It also teaches us to depend on God, become humble, or learn some important lesson. God’s foot remains on the brake until we have done what we are supposed to do.

So, if life seems to have suddenly come to a standstill with respect to further studies, career advancement, business development, improvement in health, spiritual growth, whatever—the quickest way to get it moving again is to figure out what we are supposed to be doing and do it.

This, of course, is not the easiest thing to do because it isn’t easy to know what God wants. As Isaiah said, speaking for God: “For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways” (Isaiah 55:8). Us trying to understand God is like an ant trying to understand us.

However, God has given us his Holy Spirit, and the gifts that the Holy Spirit brings with him, especially the gifts of wisdom and understanding (see Isaiah 11:2), help us to know the mind of God better. We grow in wisdom and understanding by getting into a relationship with God and meditating on his word. And, as we do both, God shows us what we need to do. 

Lesson learned, and test passed (there is always a test we have to pass!), God takes his foot off the brakes and steps on the accelerator. Life doesn’t just start again; it moves at breakneck speed. One reason for this speed is to make up for lost time; another is that when God moves, he moves fast. So you achieve things that might typically take years to accomplish in a matter of months. This applies to everything from succeeding in business and getting out of debt to recovering from an illness and kicking an addiction.

Look at some of the patriarchs in the Bible as examples of this. Moses, for one, had to wait for years in the wilderness before God told him to go to Pharaoh. After that, his life was more action-packed than a James Bond movie — until he got stuck in another wilderness — but that’s a different story. Jacob got similarly stuck in a wilderness of his own, serving Laban for years, before things started to move. And then it was like he was starring in an episode of The Fast and the Furious. 

So, dear friend, start thanking God in faith for the wonderful things he will do for you as you go about learning the lesson and passing the test. Then watch as God accelerates everything in your life!

Vrooom! Vrooom!

God bless you.