Depend On God Rather Than Self

I know that this won’t come as a surprise to most of you, but I am not always the quickest on the uptake. I’m fairly smart, I guess, but it seems like I have to learn the same lesson over and over again. And you would think I would get the picture after a few hundred times of making the same mistake.

What I’m referring to is my constant pursuit of trying to be in control of my life and what happens to me. It’s human nature to want to control your own destiny, and there are a lot of things we can do to influence our future. But when it comes right down to it, we Christians have to acknowledge that ultimately God has a better plan for us than we do.

It’s like the 1960s television show, “Father Knows Best.” When we make mistakes, we come to the father and he shows us the right path. Of course, our human fathers (me included) don’t have all the right answers, so that’s why it is so comforting to have a heavenly Father that does truly have all the right answers – if we will listen and obey.

And the listening thing brings me to the next point that I just don’t seem to get – even after repeated times of failing. I forget to ask for help and support from those around me.

I was pretty down after our last trip to Houston, and then I realized that I hadn’t asked for prayers for quite some time. I had been in cruise control and had lapsed back into a routine that didn’t really include as close a relationship to God as it should have been.

When we face our darkest moments, we turn to God and then, after the skies lighten, we tell Him that we got this. The bracelet I wear every day says “God and I GOT THIS.” It doesn’t just say “I” got this because the truth is, I don’t have it. I depend on God and His grace on a daily basis, or until I try to do it on my own – again.

I know I may have had reason to be down, but then I realized that I had forgotten to call on my prayer warriors for support. Once I did that, I had an immediate reaction. Once people started praying, for some reason I began to feel a lot better about things. Of course, it wasn’t just “some” reason because the power of prayer is the strongest force in the universe when we call upon it.

I would like to say that I will learn from this latest experience, but the truth is that I won’t. I’m pretty sure that I will lean on God and my prayer partners until I start feeling better about the current situation and then I will most likely try to do it on my own again. But isn’t it awesome that God understands and doesn’t get mad when we lapse? I’m sure He gets frustrated with us, but not mad.

I feel sorry for those people going through life without the support of the three Fs – faith, family and friends. Many think that true happiness comes by getting what the advertisers tell us we need to be happy and don’t understand a meaning beyond today.

A couple of weeks ago a man wrote into an advice column written by Marilyn vos Savant. He said that he was a member of Mensa and asked her the question, “What is the reason we are here?”

Her answer was telling, and I want to share it. She said, “I think it depends on your spiritual beliefs. If you have a religion, it provides the answer. But if you don’t believe in a god, the question contradicts your thinking. Having a reason implies having a purpose, which indicates an intelligent being (or cognitive power, etc.) with intent. That’s what people call a god. So if you don’t believe a god exists, you can’t believe a reason exists. You must settle for assuming we got here through some natural process, and that’s that.”

So, for those of you who don’t believe in God, I guess you must be happy with pursuing the transient things that the media tells you that you need for contentment and support. But for me, when my darkest moments arise, I’m going to turn to God and prayers for my peace. And I know that He will never fail me and I don’t have to worry about filling out a warranty card on a product that will fail.