Writing Our Own Story

I confess, I want to be the writer of my own story. I think this is a tendency true of all of us. I am willing to serve God, but I want to do it my way and under my conditions. I would even be willing to endure great toil and make large sacrifices. But I want to be able to define the toil and the sacrifices. But God does not work that way. God wants us to submit to His will and do what He wants, the way He wants. He wants us to undertake the toil He calls us to, even if it does not make sense to us that this is what we should be doing. He calls us to make the sacrifices He wants us to make, which may not fit our desire for dignity and recognition. God requires that He be the author of the story. Take Moses; he was ready to work to deliver his people. He thought he knew what needed to be done and was willing to take risks to do it. But God sent him into the desert to herd sheep for forty years before He commissioned him to go back and deliver his people. David was anointed king and killed Goliath, but sent many years running from King Saul before he came into his kingdom. Then he wanted to build God a temple, but was told his son would do it rather than him. Saul, later to be the Apostle Paul, was converted to Christianity and was zealous to serve the faith he had persecuted. But he ended up spending years in Tarsus before being sent out on his great missionary journeys. God always does things His way.  

It is important to remember that God is in control of the world and is working all things together for our good (Ephesians 1:11; 2:10; Romans 8:28). But our good does not necessarily mean what we want or how we think things should work out. And frequently our good involves being willing to put God and His glory before what we want (1 Corinthians 10:31; 2 Corinthians 12:9; Colossians 3:23,24). But this is not always easy. I would find the story of the wanderings of the Israelites in the wilderness hard to believe if I did not see the same things in my own life. It is easy in each new situation to forget God’s past deliverances and to grumble and complain about what God is requiring me to face now. This is true even though God has brought me through in the past time and time again. I think ultimately we just have to trust that God has a plan for our lives even if we do not understand what He is doing at the moment (Proverbs 3:5,6; Hebrews 11:13-16; Habakkuk 3:17-19). Easy to write, but not always easy to do.