A local car wash sports the slogan: “Relax In Your Car – We Do The Washing For You.”

After you pay, an attendant uses a brush to wash your windshield and bumpers. As you to pull forward onto the conveyor you see a sign with the three simple rules. Yes, three simple rules for the car wash:

1. Place Car in Neutral
2. Take Foot off Brake
3. Keep Hands off Steering Wheel.

That car wash sign taught me a lesson about trusting God. Those same three rules that lead me safely through the car wash will also lead me safely through life.

Car Wash Lessons in Trusting God

Solomon encourages us,

Trust in the Lord with all your heart,
and do not lean on your own understanding.
 In all your ways acknowledge Him,
and He will make straight your paths. – Proverbs 3:5-6

[Tweet “God’s timing is ALWAYS perfect. He is never early; never late.”]

Place Life in Neutral – “trust in the Lord with all your heart.”

Placing my car in neutral requires me to trust the car wash and the pace it sets. If I will allow it, the car wash will send my car through at just the right speed.

Yet, it is so difficult to trust Christ with the timing of our lives. Sometimes, we want what we want, how we want it, and we want it NOW. At other times, we want to slow down or even stop all together when Christ calls us forward in faith.   However, God’s timing is ALWAYS perfect.  He is never early; never late.

Take Foot off Brake – “do not lean on your own understanding.”

One of the temptations in the car wash is to worry about colliding with a car in front or behind. Trusting God requires me to believe that He is not only in control of me, but also all of life around me. I can trust that He is using all the circumstances of my life for His purposes and plans (Romans 8:28)

I find it too easy want to “help out” with Christ and manipulate my circumstances. In the car wash, if I put my foot on the brake, I alter the distance between me and the car behind me. In doing that, I put us both in jeopardy. When I try to control what is not mine to control, I foul up a more than a single circumstance.

God knows what He is doing with my life and the circumstances of my life.  My life is not a series of coincidences. God is intentionally guiding me for His glory and my good.

[Tweet ” My life is not a series of coincidences.”]

Keep Hands off Steering Wheel – “in all your ways acknowledge Him.”

The conveyor guides my car through the car wash perfectly. I never veer off course. In life, however, if I try to hold on to the steering wheel, I do too much “off-road” riding.

Acknowledging Him in all my ways means that I look in God’s Word to shape every part of my life. I bring every aspect of my life under the authority of the Bible. God’s Word is a light to my path and it will never lead me down the wrong road.

Yet, how diligent are we to read and heed God’s Word on a daily basis? We think we know the way well enough on our own . . . at least until we get lost. Of course, then we call on God to bail us out. Wouldn’t it be so much better to study God’s Word daily and live it obediently?

I must confess that I gladly trust Jesus with my eternity – I joyfully received Him as my Savior and know that because He redeemed me by His blood and  secured my future with Him forever. Sometimes, however, I find it more difficult to trust Him with my today. Well, if He can secure my eternity, how much more able is He to handle my today.

[Tweet “If He can secure my eternity, how much more able is He to handle my today.”]