I stopped praying, so I hope this song will do, I wrote it all for you.

I’m not perfect, but you don’t mind that do you?

I know your there to pull me through, aren’t you?

These are some lyrics form a Robbie Williams song from 2005. The song is called “Pure” and also contains the lyric “Oh Lord, make me pure, but not yet.”

When I heard it the other day, it got me thinking. I’m not convinced that Robbie is actually praying that line, but I wonder sometimes we Christians do. I know that we may not use these exact words, but sometimes that is what our actions say. I think we really do want God to make us pure, but we are not so keen on the change in lifestyle or attitude that would make the change complete. We want to be more like Jesus, but we must watch the latest TV programmes, regardless of the questionable moral standard they set. We say we want the homeless to be fed but think it’s the governments responsibility rather than ours.

I remember seeing a clip by “The Skit Guys” called God’s chisel. In it, one of the characters wanted to be changed by God, to become God’s masterpiece, but when God started to hammer and chisel some of the “issues” off of him, he asked God to stop because it hurt. He wanted all the benefit of being like Jesus but wasn’t prepared to change in order to get it. In the end, God asked him if he wanted to just talk about change or do something about it.

Another analogy I recall was that of the refiner’s fire. When gold is being purified, the refiner heats up the gold until it melts. At this point any impurities rise to the surface and can be scooped off and thrown away. The more times this process happens, the purer the gold becomes. The fact is that intense heat must be applied to make the change.  The same is true in our own lives. If we want to change, we have to be prepared for God to turn up the heat to the point where it is more than a little uncomfortable. The beauty of this is of course that we can trust Him not to turn up the heat to the point that we would be destroyed, only to get rid of the things that are making us impure.

I guess my challenge from all this is what are you holding on to that is stopping a transformation to purity? Is there anything that you know God wants to chisel off, not because He wants to hurt you or spoil your fun, but because He loves you and wants the best for you?

I can’t promise that there will not be pain in the process, but I can promise that He will not break you.

Will it be worth it – absolutely.

Many of you will be familiar with the phrase “Jesus take the wheel.” There are a couple of ways that I’ve heard it used. It is either a cry for guidance and help from the one who is able to direct us back on to the right path, either because we’ve drifted off the plan, or because we simply have no idea where we are going and want to take a break from making decisions for a while.

More commonly, I’ve heard it as a “tongue in cheek” expression of despair as things are going a bit wrong.

It seems to me that whether we use the expression itself or not, we all cry out to God at some point in our lives asking the same question.

When I saw the picture above it made me think that sometimes when we ask Him to “take the wheel” its not because we want Him to “direct our paths”, but rather that we want Him to take responsibility for our bad choices. We have no intention at all of changing direction, but we are able to relax and sit back while the world revolves around us for a while.

The thing is, when we ask Jesus to take the wheel, we have to be prepared for the fact that sometimes it will feel very much like the wheels have fallen off and we are in danger of having an accident.

I guess if  that happens, it’s really important that Jesus also takes the steering wheel as it’s the only way we are going to survive without getting really hurt.

Are we prepared to give Him control? To allow Him to really take us to where He wants us? Are we confident enough in His love for us that we end up off the beaten track, away from any sort of safety, that we can trust Him?

In life, the wheels can feel like they are falling off either for the choices we have made, because of enemy attack, or because God is teaching us a lesson. There is no better time in these situations to surrender complete control to Him. No matter what we face, whether sustained ill health, financial hardship or emotional turmoil, there is one who will faithfully stand with you through it all.

I wish I could guarantee that in doing that, everything would miraculously change for the better. That the hardships would suddenly end. I can’t do that.  I have seen that happen for some. I am convinced it should and could happen far more than we currently experience, but I also know that it simply doesn’t happen every time. #

What I can guarantee though is that the journey through the hardship will be filled with joy and peace that comes from resting in the loving arms of a Father who has promised never to leave us.

If it feels like the wheels of your life have fallen off at the moment, may I encourage you to continue to pray for breakthrough, but at the same time, give Jesus control of the situation, and rest in the peace of the knowledge that He really does know what He is doing, and His ways are often very different to ours.