How long have you gone in life without facing a speed bump? Not a literal one as in a school parking lot, but what felt like a crisis of any sort in your daily grind of life? These are the times when your plans are thwarted by struggles with your health, family, job, financial, life-changing decisions, or even your faith in God. Tension between good friends or unpredictable weather conditions can force you to change your plan, leaving you very annoyed. All speedbumps are not equally severe, but all disrupt life’s routine.
In spite of all the incredible miracles God did on behalf of the early Hebrews, speedbumps like shortage of water on occasion and boring manna (God provided food) seriously discouraged them. At times, they wanted to get rid of Moses (their leader) and go back to slavery in Egypt. Of course, we see that as an insane option, but sometimes speedbumps can look and feel so daunting, they seriously twist our minds and emotions. The first time the Hebrews arrived at the Promised Land, they acknowledged it was their dreamland, but they also saw the speedbumps. Intimidating giants occupied their Promised Land! They must have been fantasizing they could just waltz into vacant cities with ready built homes. All they expected to do was to walk in and set up housekeeping and live happily ever after. But that is not God’s way of loving us. He intended for them to have to fight for this gift so He could give us even more. They would not have to fight with their own strength alone. He would join them and use His power and wisdom to bring down the walls of cities, give them strategies to defeat their enemies, and empower their warriors to fight. The people would definitely have a divine advantage over anyone they fought, but they would still have to fight.
This is one of God’s wondrous ways. He doesn’t want to just give us a magnificent gift. He wants to position us so He can continue to give us more of Himself, His love and power. How does He do this? He does by allowing us to repeatedly encounter speedbumps that will force us to humbly acknowledge our need and go to Him for help! Without question, salvation is clearly a gift we cannot earn! However, the Bible also tells us to fight the good fight of faith (1 Timothy 6:12) and work out your own salvation with fear and trembling (Philippians 2:12). It is in and through the fighting and the working out of our salvation that we are shaped into His very likeness. Discovering more of just how great and loving God is literally transforms the way we think and what we believe. His objective for you and me is NOT to give us money, good relationships or to have fun. His express goal for us on this earth is for us to keep growing until we all come to such unity in our faith and knowledge of God’s Son that we will be mature in the Lord, measuring up to the full and complete standard of Christ (Ephesians 4:13, NLT2). Imagine that! All the gold, popularity, power or whatever else looks so appealing, fades away when compared to being made into the full and complete standard of Christ!
So, when do you want God to stop allowing you to endure speedbumps? Paul explains that God causes everything to work together for the good of those who love God and are called according to his purpose for them (Romans 8:28, NLT2). You and I will never know this dimension of His grace if we don’t encounter those pesky speedbumps. The most daunting speed bump Jesus endured physically was the abuse of the cross and, spiritually, separation from His Father. How did He do it? The same way you and I can endure our speedbumps. He saw the joy ahead of him, so he endured death on the cross and ignored the disgrace it brought him. Then he received the highest position in heaven, the one next to the throne of God (Hebrews 12:2b, GW).