Tangled-Up Messes
As she handed me a purple tangled-up mess of what once was her long, flowing hairpiece, Sarah said, “Mommy, can you help me? I tried and tried, but I just can’t get the knots out by myself.”
It looked pretty hopeless to me, so I replied, “I’ll work on it, but I wish you’d brought it to me sooner! Trying to fix it yourself made it much worse.”
Just as soon as I finished speaking, I heard God whisper, “That’s what you do to Me.”
Convicted by the boomerang effect of my words, I received a moment of mercy and grace that needed to be extended to my five-year-old daughter.
Why would God use that moment to remind me of my habit of tackling life’s tangled-up messes in my own strength instead of coming to Him while they are still small?
Somehow, I had it in my mind that my heavenly Father was too busy running the universe to bother with something I could solve myself. It sounds crazy, but that’s how most of us act.
Is there a Scripture somewhere that says “God helps those who help themselves?” Or, maybe, this kind of thinking is a lie that separates us from moment-by-moment dependence on the One who knows us best and loves us anyway.
Bringing my problems to God requires humility and trust that His ways are higher than mine. Pride causes me to think “I can do it all by myself.”
Who gets the glory if I can live victoriously in my own strength? Self-sufficiency takes me down a path that leads to devastation and undermines God’s plan to take care of me and exalt me at the proper time.
When I get the idea that I’m “helping God” by handling what I think is a small matter and save the “big deals” for God, I ultimately make things worse.
Do you, like me, fall into the trap off thinking God is too busy to care for you?
Is there an unseen line that a problem must cross before casting our anxieties on God is an option?
Does pride prevent us from the enjoyment of living in freedom as a child of God?
Can we believe God delights in us and longs for His children to cast our anxieties upon Him?
I don’t know what difficult situation you’re struggling with today, but we are promised that God cares for us.
We cannot “fix” ourselves, but in the midst of this messy life, we can fix our eyes on the Author and Finisher of our faith.
We can lay pride’s tangled-up mess at the feet of Jesus and trust Him use it for our good and His glory.
“Humble yourselves, therefore, under the mighty hand of God so that at the proper time he may exalt you, casting all your anxieties on him, because he cares for you.” 1 Peter 5:6-7 ESV
