This story that I am about to share with you hit me like a ton of bricks. I am still waiting for the Lord to show me why it hit me as it did. And who knows, maybe by the time I finish writing, He will provide the answer.
So, my husband has been having back problems for quite some time now, where we have looked for several remedies on how to go about fixing….hmmm, we have tried everything in our own will, but have NOT consulted the Lord. That was not even the message, but uhm, THANK YOU LORD!! We should always consult Him first; Matthew 6:33. There is a reason why God tells us to do so. If we delve into the verse, it starts off saying, “Seek ye first and His righteousness”, this is a command, to seek after God first. He was in the beginning and created all things; therefore, you would think as human beings, it would only make sense to go to the One who was here from the beginning of it all. But yet, we do not. The remainder of the scripture goes on to say, “and all these things shall be added unto you.” God is saying, if you seek after ME and ALL that I AM, I will ADD all of MY Kingdom and MY righteousness to you. This seems like a beautiful and easy deal. All we have to do is seek after Christ? And First? But yet still, we don’t. Remember, I just told you what we did.
Moving on to the lesson, God gave! Like I mentioned, my husband has been having back pain; and as a result, he asked to go to the emergency room. On to the ER we go. As we were seen by the PA, the PA was asking a lot of questions…basically trying to get to the foundation of the issue to understand how to treat his back. What I noticed was my husband already had a prognosis in mind. Meaning, he explained to the PA the source his back pain was from not having an appropriate bed. I also noticed, with every question that was posed, my husband’s response was only a subset. Now I am thinking in order to provide a full diagnosis of his back and how to treat, giving a full picture of pain, where, how it is making him feel, is pertinent information, right? His response to me, “I tell the Dr what I want them to know.”
STOP!!! Because I don’t want you to miss this. How many times have we had the same approach with God? We want God to answer our prayer, we want Him to fix our situation and circumstance, but we are not willing to give Him the full scenario. We only take a portion to Him. Do we realize not giving God total control is placing ourselves in the position of being “god?” He said, you shall have no other gods before me; Exodus 3:3. We often think of gods being a statue that we worship, but it can also be money, our jobs/careers, our children, our relationships, and yes even yourself. Anything we place higher than the Father is who we are worshipping. That “thing” is sitting at the core of your heart. The place where Jesus wants to be...OUCH!
The truth is, God wants to be in every area of our life, but He will not force Himself on us for He is the perfect gentleman. He is looking to you and to me to let go of ourselves and invite Him in; Psalm 86:1. Being an intricate and intimate part of our life is important, as well as giving the details of our situation to Him. I often wonder, thank You Holy Spirit, if the reason why God doesn’t give us details is because we don’t give him 100% of our lives, to include the details of what we are enduring. Thank You again Holy Spirit, to say God would not give us details because we do not give Him details is basically calling God tit-for-tat. He is not. Now, He could withhold, according to His will, as God is sovereign, He can do what He wants to do when He wants to do it. But to imply we serve a conditional God is not the case. His love, righteousness, and Kingdom is available to all who believe.
Don’t believe He cares of the details? I would beg to differ. When God gave instructions to Noah of how to build the ark, the instructions were specific: Make yourself an ark of gopherwood; make rooms in the ark and cover it inside and outside with pitch. And this is how you shall make it: the length of the ark shall be 300 cubits, its width 50 cubits, and its height 30 cubits; Genesis 6:14-15. But if that wasn’t specific enough, He went further and gave instructions for making the window, You shall make a window for the ark; and you shall finish it to a cubit from above; and set the door of the ark on its side. You shall make it with lower, second, and third decks; Genesis 6:16.
Remember, I started this off with a God inserted lesson that really wasn’t the lesson? Well, if we had invited God into the situation early on, when we were out seeking human remedies, the ER visit may have never occurred; just maybe. At the end of the hospital visit, my husband received muscle relaxers and anti-inflammatories; no x-rays, no-MRI, no additional tests. Now I am not saying we shouldn’t have gone to the ER, but what I am saying is you always have an opportunity to invite God into your situation. Don’t allow your own thought process, leaning to your own understanding; Proverbs 3:5, and then take action on it. This could have you going through something He does not have for you. God is God and we are not, so let Him be who He is.
