"Jesus Take The Wheel"

By John Stallings


A few years back Carrie Underwood won first place on the T.V talent show American Idol.

One of Carrie’s biggest hits has been the song “Jesus take the wheel.” It tells the story of a young mother who was trying to make it home for Christmas when her car spun out of control. In desperation she threw her hands up and asked Jesus to take control of the car.

Here are the words of that, I believe, powerful song…

She was driving last Friday on her way to Cincinnati
On a snow white Christmas Eve
Going home to see her Mama and her Daddy with the baby in the backseat
Fifty miles to go and she was running low on faith and gasoline
It'd been a long hard year
She had a lot on her mind and she didn't pay attention
she was going way too fast
Before she knew it she was spinning on a thin black sheet of glass
She saw both their lives flash before her eyes
She didn't even have time to cry
She was sooo scared
She threw her hands up in the air
Jesus take the wheel
Take it from my hands
Cause I can't do this on my own
I'm letting go
So give me one more chance
Save me from this road I'm on
Jesus take the wheel
It was still getting colder when she made it to the shoulder
And the car came to a stop
She cried when she saw that baby in the backseat sleeping like a rock
And for the first time in a long time
She bowed her head to pray
She said I'm sorry for the way
I've been living my life
I know I've got to change
So from now on tonight
Jesus take the wheel
Take it from my hands
Cause I can't do this on my own
I'm letting go
So give me one more chance
Save me from this road I'm on
Ooh, Jesus take the wheel
(James/Lindsey/Sampson)

These lyrics resonate with millions of people because they express what we all so often feel … the need for guidance in our lives. When in our humanness we’ve gotten things all messed up we reach out for a power beyond ourselves to take control.

SOMETHING NEW

In 1988 something new happened in the American political process. That year, for the first time in a long time, an avowedly evangelical candidate ran for the presidency of the United States.

George Bush won the election but if you roll the tape of your mind backwards—back before the Republican Convention, back to the early primaries in New Hampshire and South Carolina, you may recall that Pat Robertson was also a candidate for president.

When Robertson entered the race, there was great furor among the mainstream media in America. How could an ordained minister, a “televangelist” at that, dare to run for president?

For a while it seemed as if Pat might actually have a chance to win. He won the Iowa caucuses, came in third in New Hampshire, and second in South Carolina. Nearly two million people voted for him. By the time of the Republican Convention, Pat Robertson, the man the media loved to hate, came in third place behind George Bush and Bob Dole. Third place would seem to be a good showing for somebody who was new on the national political scene.

After the general election was over and after George Bush had become President, Pat Robertson wrote the story of his political campaign from the standpoint of his Christian faith. The book that resulted is a book about the will of God called The Plan.

Bittersweet Victory

The book is about the fact of Robertson’s defeat in the 1988 election, and highlights the strange feeling among his delegates to the Republican Convention in New Orleans. On the one hand, they ought to be happy because their man had done so well. At last their views were being heard. But the victory was tempered by the reality that Pat Robertson had come in third. He paints the picture and poses the question this way:

“In the quest for the highest secular prize our nation has to offer, a third place finish is respectable. But my supporters were devastated. It was as if they mourned for the dead, feeling—as I did—that God had called me to win, not run third.

So in New Orleans I was asking one simple question—did God call me to run for president or not? And if He did call me, why did I lose?”

Pat Robertson’s book asked- How do you explain coming in third when you truly believed that it was God’s will for you to win?

WHAT HAPPENED LORD?

It’s a common question, isn’t it? You set out to get a new job, you work hard for it, you go through the interview, do your very best, believing your heart this is the job God wants you to have. Then somebody else gets the job. And you say, “Lord, I thought I was doing your will.”

Or you get the job, and you say, “Thank you, Lord.” Six months later you’re fired. And you say, “What happened, Lord?”

Or you think, “If only we could move to Florida, we would be happy.” So you move believing it to be the will of God. When you get there, you still are not happy. And you say, “Lord, did we make a mistake?”

You are a college student dreaming of being a doctor. You pray that God will help you get into medical school. You go through the grueling years of pre-medical courses, staying up late at night, taking chemistry, science and math courses. To your delight, you are accepted by the first school you apply to. Two years later you are washed out, unable to handle the pressure. And you say, “God, I thought you wanted me to be a doctor. Where did I go wrong?”

We know that we weren’t put on the earth without a purpose, to grope blindly through the darkness. But that’s the way life feels sometimes, especially when you come in third.

DISCOVERING GOD’S WILL

Let’s begin where a man named Saul began when he was struck down on the road to Damascus. After he learned that it was Jesus talking to him, he only asked one question:

“Lord, what do you want me to do?” (Acts 22:10)

Simple. Straightforward. No conditions or qualifications. It was the question that changed Saul the tormentor into Paul, the flaming evangelist.

“Lord, what do you want me to do?”

We all have to start right here. Same question. You’ll never discover God’s will if you start anywhere else. This is Step One and we can’t skip it.

It’s a primary question for those high school students who wonder if they should go to college, and if so, which one? It’s a central concern for all the college students who wonder what they should do for the next 50 years. It’s the crucial issue for every college graduate. What do you do now? Which job do you take? Should you get married? Where should you live?

It’s also the key question for the adults. It’s for the people who are in their thirties, their forties, the mid-life transition point. It’s for the people who are weighing one opportunity versus another, the job they have versus the job they want, the house they have versus another house they would like to have, a relationship they’re in versus another relationship they’d like to be in.

IS THAT ALL THERE IS?

Perhaps you’re in mid-life. You’ve put in 10 or 15 or 20 years at your job and now you’re wondering, “Is that all there is?” One day you wake up and realize, “My dreams aren’t coming true.” Maybe you’re at the top or you’ve just realized that you aren’t going to make it to the top. What do you do now? Being at that mid-life transition point seems to make the decisions harder, not easier. When you’re 17, you think the whole world is spread out before you. After 25 years the window of opportunity is slowly beginning to close. You can’t go back, you aren’t happy where you are, the future looks bleak, so you ask the question, “Lord, what is it that you want me to do?”

A few more years pass and now you are 55 or 60 or 65 or 70. If you’re a Christian, you want your closing years to count for the Lord.

OUR SECRET FEAR

We all want to stand before the Lord and hear him say, “Well done, good and faithful servant.” I think all of us have a secret fear that someday the Lord will say to us, “You did a good job at what you chose to do, but, unfortunately, it’s not what I sent you to earth to do.” We worry that someday after leading a very successful life; God will say to us, “Nice going, but you missed the whole thing.”

A WORD TO THE WISE

Ephesians 5:17 says,

“Therefore do not be foolish, but understand what the Lord’s will is.”

Knowing the will of God for your life is the primary difference between being wise and being foolish. In God’s eyes, the number one thing that makes the difference between you as a wise or foolish person is that you know, understand and do God’s will for your life.

The following IMHO are four wrong ideas about God’s guidance and a biblical answer for each one. Each of these myths is quite popular and devastating in its impact.

Myth # -1 GOD WANTS YOU TO KNOW THE FUTURE

What a mistake. It’s rarely God’s will that you should know your personal future. God isn’t interested in showing you your future. God wants to show you the next step. That’s how he reveals his will for your life—one step at a time.

Psalm 119:105 paints a clear picture about how we discover the will of God:

“Your word is a lamp to my feet and a light for my path.”

The picture here is not of a blazing light. It’s a picture of a man in total darkness walking along a dangerous trail. There is no moon in the sky. Darkness clings to him. The only thing he has to illuminate his way is a lantern. As he holds the lantern in his hand, it lights the step right in front of him. When he takes that step, the light goes forward one more step.

ONE STEP AT A TIME

How does God guide his people? He’ll show us the next step. God isn’t about showing us what’s going to happen six months or a year from now. He wants us to know the next step, and nothing more.

Let’s face it; we all want to know the future. At least we think we do. We want to know what is going to happen next year so we can be ready in advance. But God won’t play that game.

GOD KNOWS—BUT HE’S NOT TELLING

Does God know the future? Yes, he does. But the Bible says,

“The secret things belong to the Lord our God.” (Deuteronomy 29:29)

God knows what will happen tomorrow, but he’s not telling anyone about it.

If you and I knew the future, we wouldn’t be able to understand it because there are so many factors that play into it. Most of us want simple answers, “Will the stock market go up or down?” “Should I take that new job?” “If I ask Sally to marry me, will she say yes?” God knows the big picture, but if he showed us, either we wouldn’t understand it or it would scare us half to death.

If we knew the future, it would make us either lazy or arrogant. It might make us lazy because we wouldn’t have to work so hard, already knowing what the future was going to be. Or it might tend to make us arrogant because we would know something other people wouldn’t know. Either way, whether lazy or arrogant, we’d be insufferable.

The most important reason it’s good not to know the future is that knowing your future destroys your faith. If you knew the future, you wouldn’t be walking by faith but by sight. It’s God’s desire to show you the next step, and he will.

DOES GOD HAVE A BLUEPRINT FOR YOUR LIFE?

Does God have a blueprint for your life that includes everything from the moment of your birth to the moment of your death? The answer to that question is “Yes.” But—and this is an all-important point…

I don’t know of any way you can get a copy.

He’s got the only copy, and he’s got it in a “lock box” up in heaven, and he’s got the only key. God wants to teach us to trust him- step by step. He reveals his will one step at a time so you will trust him moment by moment.

The second popular myth about God’s will is...

Myth # 2: GOD WILL GIVE YOU TOTAL CERTAINTY BEFORE YOU MAKE A DECISION.

Many people believe they must be 100% certain of God’s will before they make a decision. I can understand their thinking. After all, if you are facing a life-changing decision—a potential marriage, a cross-country move, a new career, which college to attend, whether or not to begin chemotherapy—you’d like to know in advance beyond any doubt that you are doing what God wants you to do.

If you have any doubt, don’t, or so the saying goes. If you aren’t sure about the new job, don’t take it, don’t make the move, don’t say yes, and don’t make any decision with less than total certainty.

But is that good advice? Is it realistic? Is that the way God normally works? I think not.

HOW MUCH DID THEY KNOW?

Did Noah know all about the flood? No, but he built the ark anyway.

Did Abraham have total certainty? No, but he left Ur of the Chaldees.

Did Jacob know where he was going? No, but he left home because he couldn’t safely stay there.

Did Moses understand what it meant to lead God’s people out of Egypt? No, but he said yes when the Lord called him.

Did Joshua know how the walls were going to come tumbling down? No, but he marched around Jericho anyway.

Did Gideon fully grasp God’s plan to defeat the Midianites? No, he doubted it from the beginning but God delivered his people anyway.

Did young David have a clue of what was to come when Samuel said to Jesse, “This is the one"? No, but the Spirit of the Lord came upon him anyway.

Did Daniel know Nebuchadnezzar’s dream in advance?

Did the three Hebrew children know how they would be delivered?

Was Daniel sure the lions would welcome him dropping in on them?

Did Peter know he could walk on water?

Did Paul know the serpent wouldn’t hurt him?

The answer is no. The life of faith means living with uncertainty even in the midst of doing God’s will. That’s the whole point of Hebrews 11. Those great men and women didn’t know the future, or have certainty, but they trusted God anyway, sometimes in the face of great suffering. And because of that, they won a great reward.

LOOKING FOR “THE MAN”

Acts 16 is a very interesting chapter. This chapter records Paul’s second missionary journey. He and his team had been preaching in various places in Phrygia and Galatia but when he attempted to go to the province of Asia, the Holy Spirit “prevented them.” (16:6) No one knows exactly how the Holy Spirit stopped them. So then they decided to go to Bithynia but “the Spirit would not allow them to.” (16:7). Then Paul had a vision in which a man from Macedonia appeared to him and cried out,

“Come over and help us.”

Macedonia was Greece, across the Aegean Sea. That was Europe. Going to Macedonia meant moving from Asia to Europe. Paul’s vision was a direct, supernatural message from God. So Paul and his companions crossed the sea, went to Macedonia, and began to preach the gospel.

Now, if you just took that story the way that most people take the will of God, there are several things you’d expect based on the vision of the man from Macedonia. First, that when you got to Macedonia, the first person you would meet would be “the man,” -right there welcoming you off the boat. “I’m the man you saw in your dream. Welcome to Macedonia.”

If it had been me I’d have had great expectations of what would be waiting on me. I’d have been expecting “the man” to run up and shake my hand and say, “Come on, you’re staying at my house. I’ve got a whole area set aside for you with big bedrooms and a sauna. Let’s hurry up. My wife has supper on the table. Man I’m glad you’re here. We’re gonna start a church.”

Thinking rationally a person would expect when they got to a crucial point in their ministry that God would give them another vision and show them the next thing that he wanted them to do.

Then they’d expect that they’d stay in Macedonia a long time, perhaps for the rest of their life, until another miracle took place.

But look what happened to the Apostle Paul when he got to Macedonia. The man from Macedonia was nowhere to be found. So far as we know, Paul never met the man who appeared in his vision.

Who’s the first person Paul meets in Macedonia? Not a man but a group of women, and one woman in particular whose name was Lydia. It was a man who said, “Come over and help us.” But Paul meets a woman.

Now, if we were following the 100 percent certainty idea, we might say to ourselves, “I can’t stay and preach the gospel to you because I’m looking for the man who appeared to me in the vision.” But that’s not the way Paul operated. Paul assumed that since there was a group of women there, they were the ones he was to preach to. Paul stayed there for many days, leading Lydia and the members of her household to faith in Jesus Christ.

JAILHOUSE ROCK

But that’s not the end of chapter 16. While he stayed with Lydia, a demon-possessed girl followed Paul around, shouting, “These men are servants of the Most High God, who are telling you the way to be saved.” She was saying the right things but with a wrong spirit. The whole thing troubled Paul so much that he finally cast the demon out of the girl. But she had made money for the merchants as a fortune teller. So the merchants got mad at Paul and had him arrested. He was thrown in jail along with Silas after the two of them were savagely beaten.

They ended up singing hymns at midnight when a mighty earthquake destroyed the jail, breaking all the chains. The jailer woke up, assumed everyone had escaped and prepared to kill himself. When he discovered that the prisoners were still there, he fell down before Paul and cried, “What must I do to be saved?” Paul led him to Christ, then led his whole family to Christ, then baptized them all right then and there—in the middle of the night!

You might think that the stage is set for a great revival but that’s not what happened. The next day Paul and Silas were released but Paul didn’t want to leave town like a common criminal. So Paul demanded—and got—an official escort out of town. The town leaders in essence say to him, “Paul, you know we practice freedom of religion, but you’ve caused a lot of trouble here. We would like you to leave town just as soon as you can.” The Bible says that Paul thanked the people he was with, prayed with them, then he and his team went on to the next city. That’s Acts 16.

But where was the man from Macedonia? He never showed up. He was a “no-show.” So far as we know Paul never got another supernatural vision telling him what to do next. And he didn’t stay there for years. He only stayed in Philippi for a few days and then went on to the next city.

DID PAUL FLOP AT PHILIPPI?

From the world’s point of view, what Paul did in Philippi looks like a failure. He was in trouble almost from the moment he got there. He ends up having the town fathers asking him to leave quietly. Is this success? Where’s the great church Paul came to establish? Acts 16 appears from a human standpoint to record a dismal failure. But from God’s point of view what the Apostle Paul did was a success because he followed the leading that God gave him. He took a step, God gave more light, he took another step, and God gave more light.

Because Paul knew that God had sent him to preach the gospel, it didn’t matter to him whether he was in jail or on the streets, he was going to preach the gospel wherever he was. Paul continued to do the will of God as he understood it. And step by step, throughout Acts 16, even through twists and turns, Paul did exactly what God wanted him to do although what he did in the end was not what he expected to do in the beginning.

MOMENT BY MOMENT-STEP BY STEP

God leads his people step by step. You might have a supernatural vision along the way but it isn’t mandatory. What is necessary is a willing heart and a willingness to move out in faith in obedience in the leading of the Lord. You and I will rarely know the future, and things won’t always work out like we expect, but we’ll still be doing God’s will step by step.

Doing God’s will means taking the next step—whatever it is—without a definite promise about the end result. Without 100% certainty when the moment comes to decide, we must make the best decision we can with the information we’ve got, trusting God for the results. Sometimes we’ll know more, sometimes less, but living by faith means taking the next step anyway.

And that leads us directly to the third myth.

Myth # 3: GOD WANTS ME TO BE HAPPY

Millions of people buy into this false idea. They believe that it is God’s will that they should be happy. It sounds good, doesn’t it? “God wants me to be happy, fulfilled and successful.” That thinking has been used to justify all manner of bizarre and even evil behavior. That philosophy lurks behind the words of a song popular in the late 70s: “How can it be wrong when it feels so right?”

People have used this myth to justify every kind of sinful behavior. Some Christians have said, “It’s God’s will that I should divorce my spouse and marry someone else because we’re in love, and God wants us to be happy. After all, everyone has the right to happiness.” The correct theological term for that is “Balderdash and Bologna.”

NOT NECESSARILY HAPPY-BUT HOLY

If it’s not God’s will for us to be happy, what is God’s will? It’s God’s will for us to be holy. It’s God’s will for us to be like Jesus. It’s God’s will for us to be in a place of maximum usefulness for the kingdom of God.

Romans 8:29 says, “Those God foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the likeness of his Son.”

That is the will of God for your life. He wants you to become Christ like. Whatever makes you like Jesus is good. Whatever doesn’t make you like Jesus is bad. And God wants to shape our lives day by day into the image of the Lord Jesus Christ.

Was Jesus a Failure?

If God’s will is to make us happy and successful, then Jesus was a failure. He was rejected, beaten, hated, despised, mocked, abused and finally crucified—the world’s ultimate sign of rejection. And to this day there are millions of people who mock the name of Jesus Christ, laugh at him, care nothing for him, and think he was a failure. Was he? Was Jesus Christ a failure? After 2,000 years has Jesus finally been vindicated? In the hearts of those who believe—yes. But to the people of the world—no.

Will God’s plan for you and me always bring immediate worldly wealth and success? No, but God’s plan will always bring peace and joy. Our duty is to find his perfect plan for our lives and to follow it with the ability that he gives us. It’s his responsibility to bring about the results.

Here’s the final myth.

Myth # 4: GOD MAKES HIS WILL HARD TO FIND

God wants you to know his will more than you want to know it. God is more committed to showing you his will than you are to discovering it. And he has taken full responsibility for getting you from here to there step by step. He said, “I will never leave you.” (Hebrews 13:5) And he won’t. He said, “I will instruct you and teach you in the way you should go.” (Psalm 32:8) And he will. He said, “Lo, I am with you always.” (Matthew 28:20) And he is. Basically God is saying, “Trust me.”

Sometimes that means victory. Sometimes that means coming in third.

In his book, Pat Robertson looks back at his campaign and draws three conclusions. (I am paraphrasing his words) First, “I now understand it was God’s will for me to run. It was not God’s will for me to win.” Number two, “I didn’t understand that until the end looking back.” Number three, “I see that out of the pain and humiliation of that defeat, God brought great blessing.”

Robertson talks about how thousands of Christians got involved in the political process for the first time and how the Lord used the defeat to prune CBN back so it was poised for even greater growth in the future. He concludes that what seemed to be a tragedy ultimately brought great blessing. That’s what often happens when we do God’s will.

Do you want to know God’s will? If the answer is no or if you are not sure, then let me ask a second question: Are you willing to be made willing? Are you willing to be made willing? If you will say, “Lord, I am not sure I am willing, but I am willing to be made willing,” he will lead you step by step.

In closing, here’s an excerpt from Pat Robertson’s book.

“The week before the Super Tuesday primary I flew into the Bristol, Tennessee, Tri-Cities airport for a rally. There were about one thousand people in that early-morning crowd-shouting, clapping, waving banners. After a brief speech, I walked across to shake hands with the people.

One member of that big crowd lives in my memory -- a little towheaded, freckle-faced boy about 10 years old. He looked up at me with eyes full of trust, and as I shook his hand, said with all the earnestness he could muster, "Please win!"

To him I must reply, "Son I don't know your name, but I want you to know this. I followed God's plan for me, so in His eyes I did win."

And you, too, can always be a winner, if you just put your hand in God's hand and walk on down the road with Him.

Blessings,


John