Sunday, April 6, 2008

A friend of mine...

Well it is Sunday so I guess that means I need to write something... why is it only on Sundays? Maybe I should have called this Sunday Night Meanderings...

Anyway, today a friend of mine was talking about how we carry around burdens that we weren't meant to carry. He said that it is God's responsibility to do what he said he would do and not our responsibility to do what God said he was going to do.

He used the example of Abraham. God told Abraham that he would be the Father of many, before he was the Father of any. But Abraham got a little anxious and took on a burden to do what God said he would do and we get Ishmael. God wasn't too happy about it and we are still dealing with Abraham thinking he knew how God wanted to do what he wanted to do instead of letting God do it.

I am not doing it justice, but he was very articulate and it was impactive to me.

Anyway, I was thinking about this in relation to a lot of things in life. The latest series on missions for one. I think it is pretty clear that we get worked up about being a voice in the world, but that is because we are taking on God's burden. Our part is to be obedient God, to what we know is right and what we hear the Spirit saying but he is the one who changes a persons heart. We don't.

Another is this whole thing about prophetic words, which we talked about a little bit at homegroup. I've gotten a lot of prophetic words about this or that but my take on it is that God will do what he said he would do and if I try to do something God said he would do before it is time, or in a way other than what God has planned than I have an Ishmael and believe me, I don't want to deal with that for years to come... frankly I have enough of my goofiness to deal with. So... I don't get real worked up about it.

Anyway, one of the things that I think would help a lot of people is if they just relaxed. I am not saying be lazy but we get so worked up about things that I think it is counter productive. I mean clearly we have to do our part, but our part isn't to do God's part.

I realize this post is a little rough, but for the few you read this I hope I made sense.

1 comment:

Joy said...

You made sense, and it is a bit motivating (I won't say convicting)-- I will endeavour to relax more (not in the lazy sense) and trust more, and let the burden of proof be on God instead of trying to do things He said on my own. Thanks for reminding me. When I heard this, I wanted to remember it, but my mind being the sieve it is, I had forgotten already. I love you, by the way, and I love reading your thoughts!
J