Protecting My Family From Rushing
Recently, I had a dream from the Lord that rocked me. It was kind of wild, but afterwards I realized the huge keys that God was wanting to give me to protect my family.
I had a dream where two unsuspecting guys were on my property. I knew in my dream they were not safe. In the dream, I went and got a gun, and I said, “You leave my property or I’m going to shoot you.” I know it sounds extreme, but in the dream they wouldn’t leave, so I started shooting.
They kept backing up, but they wouldn’t leave. My bullets should have been going through them, but they were just sticking in them like small pellets. I kept shooting, but they wouldn’t leave, they just kept backing up. I finally called for Lauren to bring me another magazine. I kept threatening them over and over to leave my family alone, and then I woke up.
When I first woke up, I thought, “I am way over-reacting, I think I am making this a bigger deal than it actually is.” I decided to pray and ask God what He was trying to tell me. He said, “You’re not overreacting, they don’t look as dangerous as they actually are. You’re wanting to protect your family from something.”
He said, “They don’t look dangerous, so the typical family would just let them in. You thought you were overreacting, but you weren’t. Look how powerful they are. They look inconspicuous, but you can see how powerful they are. Don’t stop fighting, get a bigger gun, call for back-up, and get your wife to help. You need to protect your family from these things that everyone else would consider overreacting and everyone else would consider not that dangerous.”
I was eager to ask the Lord what the two things were:
Rushing and being in a hurry
Technology
Let me be clear, I’m not opposed to using technology. I obviously use social media in my ministry, and I personally love all the good things technology brings to us. But we have to realize it’s trying to use us, and we need to be wise with our boundaries with technology.
I wanted to share a scripture with you that has been a revelation for me about rushing. It’s from the Lord’s prayer, “And do not lead us into temptation, but deliver us from evil.” Matthew 6:13.
Some translations say, “deliver us from the evil one.” A lot of people think about being delivered from the devil when they read that verse. But the word “evil” there means: full of labors, annoyances, hardships, pressured, and harassed by labors.
Jesus is telling us to pray, “Deliver us from being pressed and harassed by labors.” What is that? It’s rushing! It’s being in a hurry. Deliver us from being in a rush and pressed by all the things we have to do.
So often we rush through times with our kids. Think about the times you’re most in a hurry with your kids: going to church, going to school, and going to bed. When we say “hurry up and get to bed,” we’re communicating to our kids that we have more important things to do than be with them. We get in such a rush that we don’t treat our kids the way God wants us to treat them. If we’re not careful, we can have this mentality that something else is better.
This is my prayer for you today:
Jesus, thank you that You’ve given us time to do what You’ve called us to do and resources to do what we’re called to do. Deliver us from rushing. Deliver us from hurry. Show us the things You’ve called us to do and what things we need to put aside.
I have so much more to unpack on this topic, and I am excited to be teaching my next live workshop Slow is Fast: Repenting from Rushing. If you ever feel rushed with your kids or wish there were more hours in the day to get things done, this workshop is for you! I’ll be unpacking more of the revelation God has shown me, sharing practical tools, and praying for impartation as well. You don’t want to miss it!