This week I met a friend for coffee. At one point in our conversation, the subject of flying came up. For ten years, I was a flight instructor and charter pilot in a part-time capacity and racked up a bit of flight time. As our conversation took an aeronautical detour, I began to tell my friend a few flying stories. It was a fun mental diversion.

This morning, a video popped up on my computer screen. It was about two pilots flying to Nassau in the Bahamas. I watched with great familiarity how they completed their checklists, got air traffic notifications, and finally pushed the throttle forward for takeoff. I have done those same things hundreds of times.

As the pilots in the video neared their destination, they went through a landing checklist. Since they were flying a jet, they confirmed several times, and at various descending altitudes, a gear check confirmed the landing gear was indeed down and locked. The flight was completed safely and off they went to explore Nassau.

Some of you have done all you can to ensure a safe landing in a place where your faith will arrive at a future destination. There is nothing left for you to do except stay on the prescribed course given to you by the Lord and land your faith in the place He has assigned. 

Today, based on the flying conditions of your faith that are developing in our world, it will be more important than ever for you to go over your landing checklist once again to ensure everything has been done in preparation for your landing. As you align your life for landing moving through whatever comes your way in the form of spiritual turbulence, an unexpected change of wind direction in a relationship, or something invading the airspace of your final approach, you will be able to navigate those obstacles because you have done all the Lord has asked of you. It is time to fly your life forward with a simple faith knowing the flight plan the Lord gave you will work out.

It is time for a final check to make sure your faith has been confirmed as down and locked in place. Soon you will hear the chirp of the wheels of your faith touching down on the runway. That sound is a very satisfying sound for a pilot to hear.  

“Therefore put on the full armor of God, so that when the day of evil comes, you may be able to stand your ground, and after you have done everything, to stand” (Ephesians 6:13).