Anything exciting happening in your world today? Any fun weekend plans? This afternoon I will pick my son up from college. He’ll be home for a few weeks before taking off for a summer internship. During that time he’ll try and catch up on sleep, connect with friends, and probably eat everything that isn’t nailed down.
He has grown into a very independent young man, very self sufficient. However he can become helpless pretty quickly asking me to do for him what he is fully capable of doing for himself… if I allow it.
There are some things I will do for him, such as cook for him, because I love doing it and I really enjoy cooking for people who don’t just eat food, but really enjoy it. For Sam, food is an experience. There are other things, such as his laundry, he can and will continue doing for himself.
I often wonder if God ever feels that way about us. Does He look at us at times, when we ask Him to do things for us that we’re perfectly capable of doing, and shake His head? Where is the joy in doing something for someone who doesn’t need you to do it?
I know God tells us to ask Him for what we need. Matthew 7:7 says,
Ask and it will be given to you; seek and you will find; knock and the door will be opened to you.”
Here’s a thought to ponder: Are you ever spiritually lazy? Are there times when you know you could settle things yourself if you’d put forth some effort but instead you sit back and expect God to do it for you? I’m not suggesting your ignore God or live by the motto,
I’ll do it myself.”
I’m not calling you to be a self made man or self made woman. What I’m suggesting is there are many times God has provided a way out, a solution to our problem, the skill set we need, or whatever else we’re crying out to Him for, but we actually have to put some skin in the game in order to make it happen. Don’t be lazy. God calls us into a relationship, a partnership with Him. He wants us involved.
Mark Batterson said,
God is offended when we ask Him to do things we can do ourselves. It’s the impossible prayers that honor God because they reveal our faith and allow God to reveal His glory.”
Why not do what we can until we reach a point where we’re stuck, where we don’t know what to do, we don’t have the resources, we don’t have direction or we need discernment. Do what we can do and leave the heavy lifting to Him.
What are your thoughts?
I love that Mark Batterson quote. If we ask for impossible things, God gets the glory, not us! And yes, I think God shakes His head quite often, unfortunately.