Spiritual Autopilot

Tammy normally rides to the gym with me, and I drop her off at the house before I come to the office. This morning, she had another commitment, so I went to the gym by myself. When I left the gym to come to the office, I wasn’t paying a bit of attention to what I was doing and drove straight to the house instead of the office. Habit. I did what I normally do, and I ended up taking the scenic route around Deer Park.

My driving on autopilot this morning was simply a minor inconvenience; yeah, I spent an extra five minutes or so in the car, but not a big deal. However, I fear that too often we spiritually go on autopilot and pay little attention to where we’re going. We might pray the same prayers we’ve prayed for ages. We may sing the same songs we’ve sung since we were knee high to a duck without considering the truth we sing. We may take the Lord’s Supper on the first day of the week; that is, after all, what the Lord expects, but we may fail to consider the Savior on the cross for my sin. We may even read the Bible, but we know the words so well we pay little attention to the eternal consequences of what we read.

Spiritual life cannot go on autopilot; instead, we must actively walk with our God as we grow in him. “Enoch walked faithfully with God; then he was no more, because God took him away” (Gen 5:24). “Noah was a righteous man, blameless among the people of his time, and he walked faithfully with God” (Gen 6:9). Enoch and Noah did not put their spiritual lives on autopilot, but they carefully walked in relationship with God.

We, too, can have a close relationship with God and walk with him if we keep our lives from going on autopilot: “Let us draw near to God with a sincere heart and with the full assurance that faith brings, having our hearts sprinkled to cleanse us from a guilty conscience and having our bodies washed with pure water” (Heb 10:22). Take your life off autopilot and spend time drawing near to God.