Driven with Purpose

Transcript

Hello, my friend… come with me today. This is By God's Call — day 108, Driven with Purpose.

"Again the watchman reported, 'He reached them, but he is not coming back. And the driving is like the driving of Jehu the son of Nimshi, for he drives furiously.'" 2 Kings 9:20.

Notice a small but fascinating detail here: the watchman recognizes Jehu from a distance, before he can even see his face — purely by the way he drives the chariot. "He drives furiously." There was something so distinct, so unmistakable in how Jehu moved, that he could be identified by his urgency alone. That makes me stop and think: what drives you is visible before you even get close to people. Your pace, your hurry, the way you move through your days — all of it tells a story about what is fueling you underneath.

But here's what many people miss in this passage: Jehu wasn't racing out of empty impatience, out of aimless anxiety. Just a few verses earlier, he had been secretly anointed, by order of the prophet Elisha, to become king over Israel — and to carry out the judgment God had already decreed against the house of Ahab. Years before, in the days of Elijah, God had already said that corrupt dynasty would fall. Jehu's haste had a real mission behind it. He wasn't racing toward nothing — he was racing to carry out what had already been decided in heaven.

And that's where this story confronts me: speed is not neutral. "He drives furiously" became almost proverbial over the centuries, but the text itself is not praising or condemning the speed on its own. It's inviting you to ask: where is that hurry leading? There is a kind of urgency that flows from a genuine call from God — the drive to finish something He placed in your hands, the eagerness to chase down what He has already decided. And there is a kind of urgency that flows only from anxiety, from fear, from a heart that doesn't know how to rest and confuses speed with purpose.

The real weight of this chapter isn't in the speed of Jehu's chariot. It's in the judgment that finally reaches Jezebel, that finally reaches the entire house of Ahab — a judgment announced years earlier, one that seemed slow in coming, and that arrived exactly on God's timetable, through a man whose visible haste was, in truth, obedience.

My friend, I want you to stop today and take a look at your own pace. The way you move through your day, the hurry that follows you from morning until night — where does it come from? Does it flow from a real calling God has placed on you, something He wants you to carry out with urgency and purpose? Or does it flow only from anxiety, from a heart that runs without quite knowing why, mistaking speed for meaning?

Ask God today: "Lord, does my pace today reflect Your calling, or just my restlessness?" And let Him quiet what needs quieting, and speed up what truly needs to be carried out with urgency.

Stay close to God. Pray — then act. I'll see you tomorrow, my friend.