Traffic Report

Do you have a morning and evening traffic report on the radio where you live? Here in Birmingham we have one for the morning rush hour and then the evening rush hour. You will hear things like "All lanes on 59 north are closed" or "280 is a parking lot" and then sometimes you hear "65 south has a wreck in the right lane and 65 north is moving slow due to rubber neckers." About every 15 minutes or so you hear these traffic reports. They warn you where the roads are moving slow and give you alternate routes you can take to avoid the delay. Now, sometimes you get stuck in a delay trying to avoid the delay but all in all it is a pretty good thing to have when you live in a major city like me.

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Not only do we have the traffic reports on the radio you can turn the t.v. to your favorite local station in the mornings and the evenings and they provide a traffic report as well. Before you even walk out of your door heading to work in the mornings you know what areas to avoid and how to manage your commute. Pretty ingenious, huh?

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Wouldn't it be great if we had a "traffic report" for our lives? What if we were told things like "Your teenager is going to act like a 5 year old today, don't go anywhere" or maybe "Your roof is going to have a major leak during the next rain storm, get it fixed right now." Wouldn't that be cool?!?! But, then again, if we were told what was up ahead on our life's journey we wouldn't have faith. We wouldn't have to depend on God. We wouldn't have to be submissive to God's will.

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Job 36:15 says "But those who suffer he delivers in their suffering; he speaks to them in their affliction." He delivers us from our suffering and he speaks to us in our affliction. Did you catch that? Our sorrows, our struggles, our suffering...guess what...that is our "traffic report"!

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The struggles and trials that we go through come to us only through God's hands. Everything is filtered through him well before it comes to us and as we are going through that rough patch he is right there to deliver us if we will only ask him. 2008 will end in only a few short hours and 2009 holds hope of many promises, a bright tomorrow and unknown happenings but just keep in mind that when a struggle comes your way this new year and things aren't as smooth as you had hoped, just remember that you are in the midst of a "traffic report" and call out the name of Jesus and be delivered!

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Happy New Year!