A Call for Repentance - Day 13: Forgive me Lord for trying to take your place.
- araratchurch
- Sep 2, 2024
- 2 min read
““But you are my witnesses, O Israel!” says the Lord. “You are my servant. You have been chosen to know me, believe in me, and understand that I alone am God. There is no other God— there never has been, and there never will be. I, yes I, am the Lord, and there is no other Savior.””
Isaiah 43:10-11 NLT
Anybody with any level of understanding would certainly recognize the insanity of trying to make ourselves equal with God. His knowledge is so incalculably beyond human understanding, that any attempt at a one-to-one comparison, makes comparing the grandeur of a crib mobile, to that of our actual solar system, seem reasonable.
Paul rightly attests to the nonsensical nature of even trying to make that comparison:
“But to those called by God to salvation, both Jews and Gentiles, Christ is the power of God and the wisdom of God. This foolish plan of God is wiser than the wisest of human plans, and God’s weakness is stronger than the greatest of human strength.”
1 Corinthians 1:24-25 NLT
Indeed, God’s great power renders us unworthy of even being called “foolish” in comparison to Him.
Yet, we may be inadvertently doing the very thing we would label as absurd, if spoken as plainly as I have above. You see, we are often guilty of second-guessing God and/or trying to do the work that only He can/will do.
Think of it: We try to interject ourselves into conflicts to bring peace where people really don’t want peace, or, where the lack of peace is symptomatic of an unaddressed spiritual problem.
We may try to make things right for someone who has rejected the Lord God Himself and their difficulty is their only hope of being arrested in their slide toward destruction.
We may even try to provide answers concerning a situation about which we really have no clue. Face it, we don’t even know what we don’t know.
The conclusion of the matter is: God alone is God. We must repent before Him for—in any way—“usurping” His authority. And make no mistake, having well-meaning motives does not excuse our interjecting where we ought not. At best, it’s a waste of time, and may actually be harmful. At worst, it is offensive to the Lord.
Certainly, we should want to make peace; we should want to help make things right. But, we definitely need to seek the Lord as to where the line is between our responsibility and those things that belong only to God. I truly believe we will have more personal peace if we do so; and I know this will be pleasing to He Who IS God alone.
Peace to you.
Jesus is coming! Get ready for Him!
Comments