"A closed hand is based on the faulty assumption that we know more about what's best for us than our all-knowing God whose wisdom is unfathomable. An open hand, however, reflects the humble awareness that the Lord Jesus can do more than we can do and that His plan for us is better than any we can devise. An open hand says, 'Lord, You know how precious this thing is to me, but I acknowledge You are more precious. You have a greater plan for my life, and I don't want to miss it by clinging to my own tarnished treasures. I'm opening my hand to You in surrender and trust.'"I read these words this morning and wanted to note them here. Thought they were good ones. What "precious thing" are you holding onto that you need to surrender to the Lord today? Can we trust Him with our precious things? (Pssst, those "things" can include relationships with people, too. Including our spouses and children...hmmm.)
Source: Signs of Life by David Jeremiah pg. 170
3 comments:
Challenging. As I was saying yesterday, I find it tough to take the attitude that God might want me to forgo good things. How do I know if that's the case? I generally find it quite easy to convince myself that it is, but is that really God or is that just my skewed expectation?
I'm curious as to what you meant about relationships including spouses and children. Do you think God might ask a person to give those up?
Sarah, great to read your comments as always.
I've heard it illustrated that we can trust God as a good father just as we can trust our earthly fathers to want our best. Actually Jesus said in Matthew 7 that if we being evil (compared to God) know how to give good things to our children, HOW MUCH MORE will our Heavenly Father give good things to those who ask Him. The Bible states that God IS love so we can trust that He will only give us what is BEST for us. Do we always see it as best? Goodness, no, but that's because we are judging things from our human perspectives.
I guess it boils down to this: do we trust God? Do we trust that He is good and wants our eternal best or do we have to be wary of His motives because He may want to harm us? Honestly I have trust issues at times. I wonder about His "goodness" - I just posted this because it challenged me when I read it the other day.
As for the spouses and children thing .. in the book the author tells of a father who had a wayward son. The dad tried over and over to get his son to do right (in child code: harped and nagged) and finally he surrendered his child to the Lord and let his son walk away. He just prayed believing that God was perfectly capable of taking care of his son. Also we must be careful that our family members don't become idols in our lives. That we don't put them ahead of God in our lives.
Thanks for asking about that. I probably should have explained it more.
Thanks for your comments!
Thanks for the reply!
I clearly have trust issues too, but I'm not sure if it's about trusting God, or trusting myself to know what God really wants.
If it's obvious what is best for us, then there's no dilemma. But as you say, what's best for us doesn't always seem that way to us, so it's difficult to discern what God wants.
I suppose I worry that I will become convinced that God wants X of me, when actually He doesn't and I'll just make my life harder for no reason.
Also I worry that I just won't find it in me to do what God wants, even if I do know. Maybe if you really know, understand and believe, it becomes possible; but is that always the case? I think of Jonah and the whale. Eeek. Although it did have a happy ending. :)
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