~Daily Devotions~

Life Is Not A Crap Shoot

When seeking God's will for your life have you ever gotten your Bible down and told God, now God, I am going to open my Bible to your scripture and the first scripture I read, I know will be what I am supposed to do. (Now, be honest, I do not want to have to pray for you. I know I am not the only one who has ever done that.) But, when I did let my Bible fall open to a page and started reading, it was not what I wanted to hear, so I tried it again. You know 2 out of 3 wins.

God has let me know real fast that He or His Word is not like shooting craps.

Sometimes I want to know more. I want to be able to make the right decisions for my life. I don’t want to go outside of the will of God and find myself flailing about in the midst of consequences I actually bring upon myself. I want more than anything to stay within the pathway He sets before me. And while I want one thing, I have to accept the fact that what I want may not be the best choice for me or for others. Ultimately, I want God’s best. I take seriously the larger decisions in my life. I think everything I do works together with God’s plan to build up His kingdom and grow me spiritually. I have various folks in my life who influence my thinking; sometimes they just add to my confusion. Do I have an Amen to that last statement.

We sometimes allow things and people into our lives that God had not planned for us. When this happens, God does not change the landscape of our lives and put those things and people in His arrangement. He will try to straighten out the mess we have made when we let Him. Key, when we let Him.

“For this world’s wisdom is foolishness with God, for it is written, He lays hold of the wise in their own craftiness. And again, The Lord knows the thoughts and reasonings of the wise and recognizes how futile they are.” 1 Corinthians 3:19-20.

We try to reason everything out and the more we reason, the more we seek another’s counsel, the less we know and the more muddled our thoughts become. That is when I retreat. I actually stop talking to people about my quandary, my crossroad. I sit quietly before the Lord and ask Him for His wisdom. I rest until I have a clear answer. That can be daunting. Sometimes the answer seems totally out of sync with anything I’ve been advised. I don’t know about you, but most times God leads me to act, not on logic, but on faith. The leap may be frightening. I tend to argue with God in these times, just like Moses saying he couldn’t speak before Pharaoh. So God gives him Aaron to go along and help him. Sometimes I think all the things God used to make Pharaoh let Israel go, was to show Moses the power of God’s might. I relate well to old Moses. But that is because I take my eyes off God and put them on myself. Moses was more concerned with his inadequacy than God’s adequacy. Logic sees as far as one can see before the jump; faith sees God at the end of the jump. From that vantage point, we catapult with courage, knowing He provides a safe landing.