itsawonderfilledlife

We have all heard a story similar to this one:

A flood has happened and a man is on his roof, awaiting saving.

A boat comes by and tells him to climb on, but the man yells, “God is gonna save me.”

Then a helicopter drops a rope for him to grab, but the man yells, “God is gonna save me.”

When he, eventually, drowns and gets to heaven, he says to God, “I guess it was my time to die.”

God replies, “you’re not supposed to be here. I sent a boat and a helicopter.”

This and other similar stories highlight two messages we often hear about the will of God; that he will take care of our needs, and that he has given us the resources to take care of ourselves.

Often, when I am confronted with a difficult decision to make,  or working through a struggle of some sort, I tend to throw my hands up in the air, look up to the sky (or ceiling) and say, “I give up. You deal with this.”

Sometimes that is exactly what I needed to do, for I might have been trying to make that decision or solve a problem completely on my own steam.

Then there are other times, when I tend to freeze, and hope and pray that he will make all of my decisions, and that all I need is to have faith.

I have come to realize that the right response is somewhere in between, for God will take care of all of our needs and he has provided for, and within us, resources to make our decisions and to do what must be done.

James 2:17 reminds us, “In the same way, faith by itself, if it is not accompanied by action, is dead.”

God’s desire is that we put our faith in him, for all things. At the same time, he has gifted us with knowledge and ability to do for ourselves, to do for others.

We need to use the gifts and resources (from within and out) that God has given us, from our hands, to our minds, to our backs, to our hearts, to the hand offered by another person.