Do
You Have a “Something for God To Do” Box?
One of my friends sent me this email:
| To: |
YOU |
| Date: |
TODAY |
| From: |
GOD |
| Subject: |
YOURSELF |
| Reference: |
LIFE |
This
is God. Today I will be handling all of your problems for
you. I do not need your help. So, have a nice day. I love
you. GOD
P.S. And remember...if life happens
to deliver a situation to you that you cannot handle,
do not attempt to resolve it yourself! Kindly put it
in the SFGTD (Something for God To Do) box. I will get
to it in MY TIME. All situations will be resolved, but
in My time, not yours. Once the matter is placed into
the box, do not hold onto it by worrying about it. Instead,
focus on all the wonderful things that are present in
your life now. |
|
I think I just might make a “Something
for God To Do” Box and write out some of these things that
are God’s work and not mine. It might help me remember
the truth of this email.
In Isaiah 30:1, God says, “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…” Crazy as it seems, I can bet that almost
every single reader of this week’s Tea Time has faced a
big problem that they have responded to by carrying out plans
that are not God’s, forming alliances in an effort to solve
their problem without consulting God, and ignoring what the Spirit
of God was trying to show us to do about our problem. This just
ends up making our problems worse by heaping sin upon sin. That’s
not all that surprising a thought.
What surprises me is that in spite of the
reality that every single one of us has done this with to God
about our problems, He still wants to help us with them. His
response to our making more of a mess by handling our problems
our own way is found in Isaiah 30:15, 18: This is what the Sovereign
Lord, the Holy One of Israel, says, “In repentance and
rest is your salvation, in quietness and trust is your strength,
but you would have none of it…Yet the Lord longs to be
gracious to you; he rises to show you compassion. For the Lord
is a God of justice. Blessed are all who wait for him!”
So here’s the deal. I can do what the Israelites did with
their problems, not talk to God, ignore His Spirit, figure it
out for myself, and I will end up with worse problems than when
I started out. Or, I can repent and rest in God’s salvation
(which is a proven fact), be quiet and trust in God’s strength,
and receive God’s gracious mercy, compassion, justice and
blessings. Why do I need a memo? Why can’t I remember what
to do with problems?
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