Are you in a rut and don’t know how you got there? Even worse, do you not know how to pull yourself out? Many Christians are finding themselves in a similar situation. They have parked their hearts, their lives, and their dreams in the wrong places.
Or they parked too long next to the worst of circumstances, or they quit moving and flat-out parked when they should have got-in-gear and continued growing in the things of God.
If you are one of the many who feel like you are not able to “get-it-in-gear” and “get moving” in some area of your life – or maybe the excitement, creativity, fulfillment, joy, energy, and enthusiasm you once had is gone, then it is time for you to take another look at your situation and hearken to the voice that’s warning you: “TOW-AWAY ZONE. Don’t Park Here!”
The Growing Process
There are some very common places where most Christians park in their walk with Christ but the good news is that you don’t have to live a life of hopelessness and defeat!
Christianity is a growing process. You can accomplish everything God has called you to do. Just remember as you’re traveling down life’s highway, avoid the “TOW-AWAY” zones which say, “Don’t Park Here!”
“What,” you may ask, “are some of the signs that you are in the “TOW-AWAY” ZONE?”
Well, there are many. For example, you might park on the previous year, bad experiences, or your successes. At times you may even park by past hurts, failures, or sin. Instead, you need to forge ahead to accomplish even greater things in God!
There are people who park by the same sin year after year. Others look at themselves and see what they are not. They then park by their own human limitations and negative opinions of themselves. However, God isn’t concerned about your
limitations.
He wants you to see Him as the unlimited God of the impossible. Don’t just sit down and park. Regardless of your gender, age, or your family background, God has a destiny in mind just for you. So don’t park! Follow on after Him!
The Older the Better
There is a man whom I have so appreciated; I wish I had met him when he was alive. His name is E. Stanley Jones. He was a Methodist missionary to India for over 50 years.
At 70 years of age, the Lord said to him, “The next 10 years will be the best years of your entire life. I’m going to increase the anointing on your ministry, and greater crowds will come to your meetings. I’m going to give you more success and more revelation than you’ve ever had.”
Then God added, “And I’m going to give you great strength, and your health will be better than it has ever been.”
During that ten-year period, Jones wrote that he accomplished more than in all his previous years put together. He spoke three times a day with crowds numbering 40,000 to 50,000. He was at his peak physically, mentally, emotionally, and
spiritually.
Like many people his age, Jones could have said, “Well, it’s downhill from here,” but he didn’t. As a matter of fact, he became so excited by those 10 years, that when he turned 80 he asked God for 10 more years that would exceed anything he had ever experienced!
The best book I’ve ever read outside of the Bible is “The Unshakable Kingdom and the Unchanging Person,” which Jones wrote when he was 89 years old! I have never read such revelation of the kingdom of God, and to think, he wrote it at an age when most people have shut down and are just waiting to die.
If You’re Not Growing, You’re Dying
Life is a growing process, so just because you’re in a certain age category doesn’t mean you have to stop growing. You don’t click off your brain because you’re over fifty.
No way! Your best years are yet ahead so don’t put limits on yourself or God. Don’t park! Let the Holy Spirit be real, powerful, and alive in you!
Excerpt permission granted by Marilyn Hickey Ministries
Encouraging, optimistic, always upbeat and energetic—even in her 90s, Marilyn Hickey actively ministers internationally, most recently in Sudan, Israel, Jordan, Egypt, India, China, and Pakistan, as well as domestically in the United States through Bible Encounters and speaking engagements. Marilyn has had audiences with government leaders and heads of state all over the world. She is the first woman to join the Board of Directors of the largest church in the world, Dr. David Yonggi’s Church Growth International in South Korea. She has traveled to 146 countries and plans to visit many more in the years to come. She and her late husband Wallace were married over 50 years, and have two children and four grandchildren. Marilyn holds the following degrees of education: Bachelor of Arts in Collective Foreign Languages, from the University of Northern Colorado, and an Honorary Doctorate of Divinity from Oral Roberts University.
In 2015 Marilyn was honored at Oral Roberts University with the prestigious Lifetime Global Achievement Award. This award recognizes individuals or organizations that have made a significant impact in the history of ORU and in the world in positive ways as an extension of the university and its mission.