Stay In Your Lane!

Lane: Way or track, road, path, an aisle.

Today, I want to share with you the importance of staying in your lane. In the natural, we usually have to drive to get from point A to point B; so we get in our car and stay in our lane. There may come a time when you have to change lanes - maybe you see a sign telling you to change or merge lanes - so you do and once you've finish the task, you get back in your lane. That’s a sure way to prevent an accident from happening... not to mention it's much safer when we stay in the right lane.

Have you ever noticed how people sometimes try to drive in the Lord's lane? We see this happening a lot in our churches, on our jobs, and in our homes (side note - the outcome of that is never good). Take King Saul for an example -- he was anointed to be the King of Israel; in fact, the Lord fought battles for him. I Samuel 10:6 tells us that "...the Spirit of the Lord will come upon thee, and thou shalt prophesy with them, and shalt be turned into another man." But even after the Lord did all those things for Saul, he still couldn't stay in his lane. Instead, he tried to do the Priest's job by offering up sacrifices. In fact, he went so far as to try to do the Lord's job and as a result, he deliberately disobey Him. The Lord sent him to wipe out the Amalekites, but Saul decided to keep their king alive and he took their cattle and other valuables as spoils (I Samuel 15). Saul's unwillingness to stay in his lane causes him to lose the kingdom and his life.

Samson is another example of someone who chose not to stay in their own lane. Samson was a special child; so special that the angel of the Lord instructed his parents how he should be raised even before he was conceived! Judges 13:5 reminds us that Samson was to be set apart to God from birth. He was a Judge of Israel who was to deliver Israel out of the hands of the Philistines, but he didn’t stay in his lane. Noooo - instead Samson decided that he wanted a wife of the uncircumcised Philistine, which was unlawful. We all know how that turned out, right? Samson got out of his lane and that Delilah betrayed him. Getting out of his lane caused Samson to lose his freedom, his eyes, and in the end, his life.

Gideon, on the other hand, was a very ordinary person. Similar to Samson, he was appointed to be a Judge in Israel, only His job was to deliver Israel out of the hands of the Midianites, with the help of the Lord, of course. In Judges 6:15, Gideon said unto the Lord, "...oh my Lord, wherewith shall I save Israel? Behold, my family is poor in Manasseh, and I am the least in my father house." Sometimes the Lord calls us when we are nothing because that's exactly how He wants us; but we waste so much time trying to be/become something. Fortunately, Gideon was humble and he did as the Lord commanded, which was to tear down the altar of Baal. He went to battle with the Midianites and the Amalekites with only 300 men and the Lord... and you better believe they won the battle! Gideon stayed in his lane and because of it, Israel had rest for 40 years.

When we stay in our lane and drive by the standards the God has laid out in His word, we both honor our Lord and we protect ourselves from unexpected disasters. We must remain humble and thank the Lord for what He has given us to do. If we can just stay focused on our lane, there won't be a desire to get in anyone else’s lane. Of course that doesn’t happen over night; there has to be much time spent with the Lord to build that personal relationship with Him. That relationship is built by spending time in prayer and in His word. Once we have that foundation, it's easy to believe He’s going to take us just where we need to go... as long as we can remember to stay in our own lane!

With all that said let the church say amen... and AMEN!