“And let fall also some of the handfuls of purpose for her, and leave them, that she may glean them, and rebuke her not.” Ruth 2:16
There are race cars, there are horse and buggies, fancy sports cars, old clunkers...and then there’s me somewhere in the middle. I’m not talking about the year or model of the transportation. I’m talking about the speed at which they travel.
Yes, the speedometer in my vehicle says I can go faster than I ever care to experience. I am a cautious, mind-my-own-business sort of driver. I stay very close to those “recommended” speeds posted on the square, white signs along the roadside and don’t care to keep up in the fast lane. I have never received a super speeder ticket, or even been pulled over for that matter. No, neither have I gotten pulled over for going too slow, if you must know. I just don’t care to go fast. Most of the time.
That’s when we’re talking about driving.
I tend to be a little less worried about speed though when it comes to having my prayers answered or how quickly God decides to bring me through an unwanted detour on this road of life. In fact, I’d probably be an easy target for a super speeder ticket in those cases. Who wants to lallygag getting through the rough parts of life anyhow? Let’s get it over and done with already! Right?
In my Bible reading, I read about Abraham and Sara, and about how they got tired of waiting on God’s promise to be fulfilled - so they got ahead of Him. Warning!!! What a disaster that was!
I know I’m guilty of the same thing at times. What about you, my friend? Do you get tired of the wait and try to outrun God? We don’t often call it that of course, we glorify that four letter word: BUSY. Guess that’s why patience is considered to be a virtue.
This thought got my attention the other day though:
Don’t run faster than the speed of God’s blessings which are trying to track you down.
We all know God has an individual plan and purpose for our lives. We all realize His ways and timing are quite different than our own too. What if His answers to our prayers or the wonderful blessings He has for us never come into fruition because we’re in too big of a hurry? What if we’re trying to get “thru” this season so quickly that we fail to collect all the valuable nuggets God has placed along the way?
Although we live in a high production world, there is a blessing in slowing down. Ever heard the phrase “stop and smell the roses” or “slow and steady wins the race”? I’m a firm believer that every path has a purpose. There is not a detour or season of life that isn’t meant to grow us in some way. These times are also capable of bringing blessings if we’ll be cautious enough to glean them. The alternative is to speed through, quickly bypassing what is intended for our benefit and blessing.
We miss the beauty, blessing and benefit of the journey when we’re too busy or in a hurry to get through the process.
Think about the fruit of the spirit: love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control. None of that sounds like super-speeder qualities to me. It sound like results of steady, cautious, intentional living. When we’re busy moving about at the speed of light we become careless and often overlook important things; we leave behind blessings and testimonies.
I can’t get the thought of Ruth gleaning in the fields of Boaz out of my mind. What did she gather? She gathered stuff which had been left behind by others. Sure, Boaz told them to leave it, but do we want someone else gleaning what was designed to be our own benefits and blessings? Do we want others giving what should be our own testimony? Or do we want personal testimonies to share with others?
My friend, it’s just something for us to ponder today. We can get so busy and consumed with the outcome or simply getting out of a season we don’t care for that we fail to come out with all God intended us to gain along the way.
what if we were intentional and chose that which is good, and left the fast lane of life to purposefully slow down and glean the special blessings left behind for us. God, like Boaz, has left behind handfuls of purpose for us on our journey today. Will we glean them, choose to leave those behind?
Be encouraged right where you are today!