My husband laughs at me all the time - he says I do things the hardest way possible. To give myself some credit, part of it is because I'm left-handed. We lefties learn from an early age to do things "differently" in order to make it work for us.
Last night he came upstairs while I was cooking dinner and he caught me trying to cut open a plastic bag with a knife. The way I was doing it was dangerous (I will admit this!) and he asked me why I hadn't grabbed the scissors that were right beside me and use those. All I would have had to do was reach out my hand and pick them up from the holder! Well, I don't know - maybe because I do things the hard way. Maybe because the knife was laying there since I had just cut up the vegetables. Maybe it was handy! It just didn't occur to me to do it any other way.
Isn't this how we are with God sometimes - we do things the hard way? It doesn't occur to us that we can do it a different way, an easier way. We may start by fixing it ourselves. We think about it and stew about it; we grapple and fight with it. We can spend days and weeks on end trying to fix the issue. Then, when we do turn to God, many times we want to help Him correct the situation. Does this sound familiar -
"God, will you please do...." or
"Lord, will you make this happen..." or
"God, here's what would work great..." or
"God, I think what I need is..."
For some reason, we think God needs our help. And we think it has to be hard to get God's attention. After all, we know there are so many needs in the world. Ours may not compare to others, they may not be bad enough, they may not be worth His time. So we try to work it out on our own, most of the time to no avail!
This isn't what God wants from us. He wants us to turn to Him first, not as a last resort! He wants us to say,
"I need you," or
"Let Your will be done in this situation," or
"You know what's happening, God, so what do I need to learn from this?"
That's all! We don't have to try and make it hard, or complicated, or worry that we are bothering Him. He is waiting for us to just stretch out our hand - and He will supply our needs!
Matthew 6:33(NIV) says this beautifully:
"But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well."
Now doesn't that just give you comfort today? Seek God first - and He will supply us with what we need!
By the way, I wrote this while watering my plants this morning. You see, it was already getting hot and I needed to get the watering done before it became unbearable. So I began watering my plants - in my bare feet! It hurt, but did I run in and grab some shoes? Of course not! I laughed at myself, wondering why I'm always doing things the hard way! As I've said before, I'm a work-in-progress!
In Christ!
Vickie
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