“Woe to the obstinate children,” declares the LORD, “to those who carry out plans that are not mine, forming an alliance, but not by my Spirit, heaping sin upon sin.” (NIV)
No one builds a house and then draws up the architectural plans. Even children know that you first have to open the freezer, then take out the ice cream, scoop it, and finally eat it. There is an order to doing things, and most Christians want the Lord to be part of that order. We go on the Internet to research the best places to stay, order our tickets, stop the mail, tell our neighbors we will be gone for a week, and then pray for the Lord’s blessing on our vacation. We think we are being faithful, when in fact we are closer to heaping sin upon sin.
God is not a genie in a bottle. He is not a magic talisman to be used when we need a blessing. Jesus taught us to pray that God’s will be done on earth as in heaven. This means that our plans must align with His. It may be His will that we travel to a certain place, make a certain purchase, marry a certain person. It may be His will that we do a particular thing for our children or enter into a particular business agreement. Yet we will not know if we do not seek His will before doing any of those things. We must align ourselves with His will and not try to strong arm Him into our plans.
Where is God in the order of things you have planned for today? If He is not first, then you have set yourself ahead of Him, and that is a dangerous place to be.
O Lord, my God, You are so gracious to me, heaping upon me grace and mercy beyond my comprehension or merit. May I seek Your will in all that I do. May my life be ever more conformed to that of my Savior, Jesus Christ. Through me, may Your will be done on earth as it is in heaven. Amen.
Copyright © 2010 by Steven R. Perkins
This reminds me of this book I've been reading by Pete Wilson - Plan B: What you do when God doesn't show up the way you thought He would? It's amazing how easy we tend to think it is, and how difficult it turns out to be sometimes.
ReplyDeleteThanks, Native! I had not heard of that book.
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