Steam Locomotive Train

Getting a Handle on Life

posted in: Inspiration | 1

Steam Locomotive TrainIt’s time to get a handle on the opposition.  

Whether you are facing an addiction, a problem at work, trouble in a relationship, an issue with your health, a bad habit, unhealthy choices, or destructive behaviors.  Whatever the enemy is throwing against you today, it’s time to find the handle on that baggage and throw it off your train.  

If you think about life like one of those old-timey trains that show up in so many films about the old west.  Inevitably at some point in the film the good guy and the bad guy end up chasing each other over the roof of the cars and through the baggage cars and past the other passengers chucking whatever gets in the way through windows and doors (and sometimes walls).  Apparently in the old west nobody but the one good guy was able to help in the struggle and so all of the other passengers would just cower as our valiant hero punched, shot, climbed, and wrestled their way to victory.

Life is kind of like that train.  The train is actually going in the right direction.  No matter what happens on that train, God is still working in your life to use everything that happens to bring you to blessing, fulfillment, eternal life, peace, joy, contentment and happiness.  God is like the locomotive, pulling the train along the path of life, giving it energy and direction, providing a purpose and a destiny.  The enemy is nothing in comparison to the locomotive.  However, the enemy is working to convince you that you don’t need the locomotive, that you would rather not be on the tracks, and that what matters on the train is more important in determining your destiny than the train’s ultimate destination.  Obviously, these are all lies.

Your job is to throw the enemy off the train before they have the chance to decouple you from the locomotive, wreak havoc on the passengers, or destroy the cargo.  And that’s where finding a handle on the opposition comes in very useful.

The enemy is going to use every lie and misdirection they can think of to get you distracted and focussed on something else.  The enemy wants nothing so much as more time to work under the cover of deception and obscurity.  If you haven’t even identified what the hallmark indicators of the enemy are in your life, obviously they are going to have a much easier time getting the drop on you.

Jesus said, “By their fruit you will know them.”

In other words, just like in that old timey western film, the bad guys actually do wear black hats and the good guys actually do wear white hats — you just have to be honest enough with yourself to see them.  When you have an attitude that yields really poor results, are you honest enough with yourself to own it and try something different next time?  When you have a negative experience in a relationship are you willing to look yourself in the mirror and acknowledge your part in it?  When you are struggling with an addiction, are you ready to see it for what it is and decide to make a change?

The fact is, your entire life is conspiring to take you in the right direction.  The signs are everywhere.  The tracks really are straight out to the horizon in the right direction and God’s locomotive is pulling your train to a blessed future even when you are momentarily losing the fight with the enemy back in the caboose.

The key is to find the handle on what the enemy is doing.  Why do you want to be where you are today?  Why do you believe what you are doing is working out when it is not bearing good fruit?  What is it that is making you fear the enemy and remain subservient to a life that is less than God’s best for you?

You find that handle.  You find the traction on that baggage.  You figure out that God is on your side and that all you need to do is throw out a certain perspective, belief, attitude, or behavior and you can start enjoying the ride of a lifetime.  And you will discover that the battle with the enemy will start turning in your favor.

The sad truth is that often you may start with only a couple of bad actors on your train, but at every stop, at every depot, at every station in life you find yourself inviting new black hats onto your train.  You are surprised that it gets harder and harder to hold the train together and harder and harder to stay on the rails.  You may feel that the locomotive is going too fast and that everything in life seems to be getting worse and not better.

The first thing to realize is that the train of your life can’t go off the rails until your life is over and God will never stop pulling it in the right direction.  No matter what the explosions, fire, and smoke that the enemy introduces into your life, the fact is that God is still working to hold it together and bring it to your good.  You are still a person of destiny.  You are still a child of God. You were born on purpose, for a purpose, and today is the day that it all turns around.

You may be backed into the corner at the proverbial guardrail on the last car at the end of the train, fighting for your life not to get thrown off, or you may just be having a slight argument with a seedy character in the club car.  Either way, it is time to realize that you are in a fight for your life and that you have a choice.  God is working right now to bring you into a new awareness of the power that you have to change your life when you realize that nothing that has happened to you in the past has actually destroyed your potential for eternal life, blessing, and hope moving forward.

Your job is to throw the enemy off your train.  Starting at the next station stop, find a piece of the enemy’s baggage, grab it by the handle and throw it off your train.  Start small or start big.  Find something obvious or something obscure.  Just start somewhere and turn the tide of the fight for your train.

So, here is the secret to success, it may be easy to let go of things that you never wanted in the first place, but much of what you are going to be throwing off of the train in your life are things that you chose, that you wanted, things that you may think you need.  You may have no problem at all throwing the need for pornography off of your train because you have a fulfilling and intimate relationship with your spouse that makes it no longer necessary.  But you may find that you believe that you need give up your integrity in order to succeed in business.  Or you may think that that next drink is all that is getting you through the day.  It is these enemies that you have invited to stay with you that are the hardest to find a handle on.  So, start looking today.

God is going to provide you with new connections, new relationships, new opportunities, and new abilities as you start cleaning house.  The enemy has already lost, they just don’t know it yet.  The tide is turning in your favor.  Today is the first day of forever and God is strengthening you for the battle.  Get ready to let go of things that you accepted as just the way things were.  Get ready to replace a defeated lifestyle with your God-given destiny.

Your train is headed in the right direction.  God is drawing your life towards blessing, abundance, prosperity, and peace.  Now get out there and throw the enemy off of your train.

Follow Steve Simons:

Bible Believing Follower of Jesus Christ. Preacher. Conservative. Republican. NRA Member. Chevy Truck Guy. "God's Answers Are Always Simple. God's Answers Always Work." #GraceRevolutionGeneration #IAmNotAfraid

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  1. Kathy

    Good message! Good is stronger than evil and God is Good! And God is pulling us heavenward. So reassuring.

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