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? |
