As a pastor, I get to meet a lot of interesting people. I have an Over-the-Road (OTR) trucker who is new to our church family. I wanted to spend some time getting to know him better, so I decided to join him on the job one day. Seven hours in the cab of a truck allows for some good conversations!

One of the topics we discussed was the driving abilities of other truckers on the road with us that day. The trucker I was with had been driving for 34 years and had never had an accident that was his fault (though recently a lady had over-corrected next to him on the interstate and caused a non-injury collision).

Suddenly, we were overtaken by a huge black wall cloud storming across the corn fields. The trucker handled it smoothly and talked about other drivers who had never studied or learned how to handle 60,000 or 70,000 pounds in suddenly bad conditions.

He talked about how being prepared before disaster was the only solution to getting safely through unexpected conditions like high winds, a load shift, a tire blowout, or the not-as-prepared drivers on the road ahead of you. Knowing what to do and preparing ahead of time is what makes the difference between OTR drivers and really good OTR drivers.

Preparing beforehand is like building a strong foundation so that when disaster comes your way, you are ready. Matthew 7:24-27 talks about not just knowing the right thing to do, but doing it ahead of time.

What spiritual truths do you know about but are not practicing? Are you preparing a strong spiritual foundation? It can make all the difference.

Prayer for the week:

Lord, I may not like them, but the storms in life are going to come my way. Help me to be ready for these storms, even when I don’t understand what You are doing to prepare me at the time. Thank you for Your Salvation and for guiding me in all the times of life. Amen.

Mark Eigsti is senior pastor of Freedom Church of the Nazarene in Lebanon, Missouri, USA.

Written for devotions with Holiness Today. 

Please note: All facts, figures, and titles were accurate to the best of our knowledge at the time of original publication but may have since changed.