God’s Power and my choices

I’m being challenged continually to trust Jesus with everything. Last night we prayed with friends and part of that included a discussion about repetition. Do we ask God once for something and trust Him to do it? Or do we pray every day until it happens?

The question in my devotional: Is it not hard to trust the management of the universe and all of the outward creation to the Lord?

My first thought: Why not then trust Him to open up a parking place close to the door of a store when it is pouring rain and the umbrella is at home in the other car? Can my concerns be more complex and difficult than keeping the earth in orbit, or taking care of animals and birds, or even making flowers grow and bloom. Why then be anxious or troubled about His management of my life, or the lives of those around me? Why not pray as often as concerns arise?

If I take my stand on the power and trustworthiness of God based on just creation, it is easy to see that He knows how to turn a patch of weeds into a field of flowers, or protect a hive of bees, or turn a lanky and very shaky foal into a sleek race horse. It should be easy to pray about everything as long or only once.

I can trust Him to forgive my sin and give me eternal life — and “I am not ashamed of the gospel, for it is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes, to the Jew first and also to the Greek.” (Romans 1:16) For those who are perishing, the word of the cross is folly, but to me it is the power of God. (1 Corinthians 1:18)

Jesus died in weakness but rose again by the power of God. I am weak yet live and will live forever in the power of God (2 Corinthians 13:4). Why then do I not pray about everything since God can do anything? Is it not because the sin nature so easily rules? The sin nature simply wants to be lord of my life. Compared to what God can do, how foolish is that! If I do not pray, is it because my sin nature assumes I can handle all things?

I woke this morning with an agenda. But the dishwasher needed to be unloaded. The words “Do the right thing” ran through my head so I unloaded it. I have a role in a nonprofit group and saw an email that needed a response from my position on their board. A voice in my head said “Answer this now” and again, “Do the right thing” and no worry of responses for my response was a rebuke of sorts. At the same time, I knew this was the Holy Spirit telling me what to do, not my agenda.

I’ve been complaining how my to-do list runs my life when I have the God of the universe standing by and quite willing to take on that role. I do not alway listen. How foolish is that?

Once someone said to me that God was to be relied on the big stuff, like the wars in the world and the weather and anything else we cannot control, but we are not to bother Him with things we can do ourselves. I do not agree. That person has never felt helpless or unable to take on the challenges of life — a weakness that God allows to those of us who stubbornly insist on managing our own lives without Him. Doing the right thing means doing what God tells me to do, not what I want to do. Sadly, my ‘I wants’ are the essence of sin.

All we like sheep have gone astray; we have turned—every one—to his own way; and the Lord has laid on him the iniquity of us all. (Isaiah 53:6, italics mine)

PRAY: Jesus, I hear You loud and clear. The bottom line for me today comes from this seldom preached verse: “So whoever knows the right thing to do and fails to do it, for him it is sin.” (James 4:17) Keep me hearing it. I’m tired of trying to do my own thing and even if my actions are not what others might consider sinful, if I am not doing what You tell me, then I am sinning against You.