Trust in the Lord with all your heart;
    do not depend on your own understanding. Proverbs 3:5 NLT

Have you ever noticed what happens when we leave God out of any particular situation we are dealing with?

Never Pretty

 Anytime we leave God out of the picture, we are left to try and gain control of our circumstances by ourselves. The resulting picture is never pretty.

Driven by Fear

Our reactions become driven by fear. We are scared to death that things will not turn out the way we want them to. That fear drives us to start scheming and plotting and devising ways to enforce our will on the situation. We become like a drowning man floundering in the water. He tries desperately to save himself with no way of doing so. All control of the situation slips through his fingers as he finds himself completely at the mercy of the water.

Not pretty…

A Better Way

There is a better way. Instead of running around relying on our own understanding and trying to figure out how to do things for ourselves, we could turn to the Lord and find out what He is saying about the situation. When we do, we discover what He wants to do and how to cooperate with Him. This puts Him in the driver’s seat instead of ourselves. Now we are living under His mercy rather than being victims under the mercy of our circumstances. This way of dealing with things is adorned with faith and obedience. This is a serious discipline to be developed, and develop it we must if we are serious about living in the Reign.

M