Lesson Number Three
People get discouraged when they are in the midst of a trial because they want to know how it's all going to turn out. Right now! When life is turned completely upside down, our nature is to want to fix it. Immediately. But most of the time, God does not reveal things to us that way. Jesus said in Matthew 6:34, "Take therefore no thought for the morrow: for the morrow shall take thought for the things of itself. Sufficient unto the day is the evil thereof." In other words, don't borrow from tomorrow. Just live today. Out of my five children, three were readers growing up, and the other two, not so much. The two who were not really into reading did enjoy a series of children's books called 'Choose Your Own Adventure'. The books are written from the second person, and the reader has a role in the adventure. As you read, you are faced with several options, and then you choose your own path, turning to different pages as the story unfolds. You could read the book through several times and end up with a completely different story each time. Life is not like that. At least not life in God's will. We want choices. We want to be in charge of our own destiny. And we want to know what the ending is right now. We want to choose our own adventure. Give me the options, and I'll make my choice. I'll turn to page 78, and when I'm finished there, I'll end on page 162. Perfect! But God doesn't want us to live like that. Sometimes we do, but He doesn't like it. Living that way is called scheming. There are things that I've written in my Bible important enough to me to copy into the next when I get a new one. This is one of those things: Faith is living without scheming. That means that when I'm in a situation that feels uncomfortable or uncertain, my job is not to figure out what page to turn to to make the ending I want. My brain just naturally goes there. It's called living in the flesh. I am fighting doing just that as I type this, and I have to fight it with every fiber of my being. My self wants to act. To do. To make the situation work out the way I want. And I could. But I've learned that is not what God wants for me. And when I act on my own, it never turns out the way I thought. NEVER! Hebrews 11:6 - "But without faith it is impossible to please him: for he that cometh to God must believe that he is, and that he is a rewarder of them that diligently seek him." 2 Corinthians 5:7 - "For we walk by faith, not by sight:" Stop scheming and lean in heavy on the Lord and trust Him. Seek His face and His will. I am talking to myself, but if it helps you to overhear my struggle, then make it your own. Lesson number three: Live only in this day and stop scheming!