Can you picture what life would be like if everyone put these words of scripture into practice.  It is tough to imagine how awesome it would be. I am absolutely positive that we wouldn’t have to be praying for peace because we would be living in peace.  We certainly wouldn’t have newspapers to read or TV news shows to watch because they wouldn’t have anything to report.

This view of the world is seen by some people as wishful thinking even fantasizing.  People in general have become good at:

Pretending to love others.

Pretending to feel moved with compassion.

Pretending to become indignant when they learn of an injustice.

Honoring others with an ulterior motive.

Reducing hospitality to social entertaining.

Repaying evil for evil.

In other words we have become good at pretending to live God’s Word. All too often we seem to take God’s blue prints for living and rewriting them to fit our desires.  The evidence of what I say is in the fact that too often we are prisoners of despair instead of joyful in hope.  It has become all too difficult to live as Paul said,

“Be joyful in hope,
patient in affliction,
faithful in prayer.”

In the book God Will Answer, Ron Susek states a reason for this despair.

We don’t trust the authorship of God. We are always trying to take the pen from God’s hand in an effort to rewrite the script.

Let me give you the following illustration.  It was about 20 years ago that Diane and I along with friends were planning to build a house.  We met with a builder and told him what our needs were and the kind of house we were interesting in having built.  The builder proceeded to make blueprints for the house.  When we looked at them we found them to our liking but the cost of building that house was too expensive.

We took the blueprints and began to suggest some changes in hopes of not compromising the kind of house we wanted but in hopes of reducing the cost.  The builder, who I should add was a very patient man, took our suggestions and made the changes.

We liked the design changes, but instead decreasing the cost, the changes had increased the cost. We began to make more additional changes. Changes that we thought were practical and cost saving.  This time the builder agreed with us.  The changes would be cost saving, but the changes would compromise the integrity of the house.  At that point we realized we couldn’t afford the house and we scraped the plans all together.

When it comes to God’s blueprints for living, too often, we look for ways to alter them. When we become frustrated by the mysteries of life.  When we don’t agree with how God has ordained things?  When we don’t like God’s blueprints, we take the pen out of His hand and we try to rewrite the script for our life.

What we are doing is taking authorship of our life away from God?  We no longer trust His authorship.  We have reversed the following lyrics,

“You are the potter, I am the clay,
Make me and mold me after Your way,"

We, the clay are now trying to mold God, the potter. Trust me, that doesn’t work. We have to refocus. Instead of focusing on your unyielding situation we must focus on your relationship with the Lord.

What overwhelms you today?

Draw a small picture or symbol of it and draw a box around. If you can’t think of a symbol write its name inside the box. Now I want you to draw a wide circle around your box. This circle represents God. Notice how the circle is bigger than the box.

If that circle represents God and that box represents what overwhelms you what does that say to you.  God is bigger.  God is greater.  God surrounds your challenge.

The problem is all too often we put God inside that box. Don’t feel bad if you have done this. You are right there with the best of them. Moses did exactly the same thing during the Exodus journey. When God heard the people complaining about being hungry He told Moses,

Consecrate yourselves in preparation for tomorrow, when you will eat meat.”

Moses said to God,

“Here I am among six hundred thousand men on foot and you say ‘I will give them meat to eat for a whole month!’  Would they have enough if flocks and herds were slaughtered for them?  Would they have enough if all fish in the sea were caught for them?

The Lord answered Moses,

No challenge is too great for God.  Pray over your drawing until you accept in your heart that God is bigger than any opportunity or any obstacle.  Trust the author of your life.

Pray instead of worry. I want to challenge you to change your worry time into prayer time. Each time you become anxious, each time you start to worry, turn it into a prayer. Lift whatever it is that is overwhelming you up to God. Give Him your worries and take from God His peace, His assurance, His courage, His strength. Be faithful in prayer AND you will be joyful in hope and patient in affliction.