I’d imagine there is no worst feeling than feeling as if you are a failure. The disappointment that accompanies a person when they have not met their own expectations or those of others can sometimes be unbearable. Even the strongest encouraging words from a trusted mentor or friend find difficulty in rescuing one from this abyss of the feelings and emotions of failure. But when even when we write ourselves off, God is faithfully there to rescue us—with his unconditional love. The lesson I have learned is that I have found myself in this spot because I have tried to provide for my own needs. Sometimes acting on our instincts and neglecting to follow the will of God we end up frustrated by failing at a particular thing (or things) in life. Instead, God wants us to trust him to provide for all of our needs—physical and spiritual (see Philippians 4:19). I have affectionately titled this lesson: “self provision equals frustration”.
In my story, God has faithfully shown his hand of provision over and over again. However, with each showing I learn something I had missed before. I guess it is similar to the first time you or I learned to ride a bike, there were reasons you were told to “keep your eyes in front of you”, “keep pedaling”, etc. etc. These were no doubt phrases your mom or dad told you all along, but they didn’t really make sense so you may have discarded them from your memory, until….CRASH! You fell and scraped your knee or elbow. Then as you came running back to your parent for consolation you probably heard something like, “You’re ok. It’s alright. Be more careful. Now, remember you have to “keep pedaling””. God gives us instructions all the time that we disregard because we think they are unimportant or we have the situation under control. In some instances, we are really naïve like little children and I believe he is patient with us. But after the 10th bicycling lesson, it becomes imperative that we heed the instructions that he’s been giving us. We can no longer rely on what we think should happen to dictate our actions. His command has been given for our benefit, just like your parents’ commands were in the case of teaching you to ride the bike. A continual disregard for his commands inevitably leads to frustration and then—CRASH! So how can we tune in our spiritual ears to listen for God’s still, small voice that speaks to us? Well for all of us that are in relationship with God, we should recognize his voice. This comes through spending time with him and understanding how he relates to us. Sometimes it may be through prayer or reading the word. At other times, God may use someone in the body of Christ (e.g. preacher) to deliver his message to us. No matter the method he uses, we must spend time with him to recognize how he speaks to us. Then we must limit our distractions. It may seem impossible to “eliminate” all distractions, but to the extent we can limit them greatly increases our chances of hearing from God. Distractions can come in many forms and they are unique to the situations that we face. I referenced Bruce Wilkinson’s story about Ordinary in The Dreamgiver last week and the many giants that he faced on his way to his big dream. Whether we want to call them giants or distractions, they are capable of keeping us from obeying the voice of God. Within ourselves we know the things that take our attention away from God. When we are aware of them we must limit or remove them. If not, they become “idols” of distractions that hinder the line of communication between us and God. Lastly, we must find ourselves putting all of our trust in him. Going back to learning how to ride a bike, I trusted my dad because he had ridden before. Before we began our initial lesson I remember him showing me that he could ride with no problem. This greatly increased my confidence in his ability to teach me. God has an unblemished track record of his faithfulness to his people. Why can’t we just trust him? I know this sounds much easier said than done, so what is the problem? I believe that at times our “adult” knowledge hinders our ability to trust God. Child-like faith is unhindered faith because it isn’t encumbered with responsibility, obligations and expectations. So the challenge ultimately becomes to exchange our encumbrances for God’s light burden (see Matthew 11:30). I believe this is the key to restoring a child-like faith in our Heavenly Father. God is intimately aware of our responsibilities and obligations (see Luke 12:7). He also wants to know if we are aware that he cares for us and is going to honor his word to us, despite what our current situation looks like. Often we are caught telling God about our situation, instead how about we tell our situation about our God! In doing this, we resolve to rely on Him instead of relying on ourselves to find a way out. We will only end up frustrated or something worst—CRASH! Will you resolve today to trust God’s ability and not your own? Maybe you are at the point where you’ve tried everything. Why not give God a chance to work on your behalf without any interference from you?