Skip to main content

There Is No Other

                I am the Lord, and there is no other; apart from me there is no God. I will strengthen you, though you have not acknowledged me, (Isaiah 45:5)

 

The exercise for today has to do with examining our lives and being honest about how things went when we tried to be in control in comparison to how they went when God was in control. One of the big things about trying to be in control is that there are stress and anxiety. Am I making the right choices? I am making the right choices, but what if they don’t cooperate? Am I doing good enough? How do I get God and everyone else to cooperate? Am I even doing the right thing? Why can’t they see it?

When I am trying to be in control, it’s often my emotions that are in the lead. Sometimes, my will gets involved – on overdrive. I can keep going for a long time, but burn out eventually. Once I lose focus, I’m done for.

When I am going it alone, it’s not unusual for me to feel abandoned.

On the other hand, when I sensed God leading, my initial reaction has been “No, no, no, no…no, no, no.” But as I have moved forward, the problems and the challenges have not seemed as insurmountable as they do when I’m trying to do it myself.

When I’m allowing God to be God, I may have to school the various “parts” of me (will, thought, feelings, body, social relations, and soul) but there is a sense of direction, and therefore peace and synergy. It’s easier to get into a zone and there is less of a sense of being alone or abandoned.

Your list may not be the same. My list might not be the same if I had a specific incident to consider. What it all boils down to is that when I stop trying to take God’s place, life gets less stressful because trying to be someone or something you’re not capable of being – by definition – is tough on a person. So I keep telling myself that God is God and I am not.

 

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

A Virgin?

           Therefore the Lord himself will give you a sign: The virgin will be with child and will give birth to a son, and will call him Immanuel. (Isaiah 7:14)           This is how the birth of Jesus Christ came about: His mother Mary was pledged to be married to Joseph, but before they came together, she was found to be with child through the Holy Spirit. (Matthew 1:18)           But the angel said to her, “Do not be afraid, Mary, you have found favor with God. You will be with child and give birth to a son, and you are to give him the name Jesus. He will be great and will be called the Son of the Most High. The Lord God will give him the throne of his father David, and he will reign over the house of Jacob forever; his kingdom will never end.”            “How will this be,” Mary asked the...

Higher Thoughts

  “For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways,” declares the  Lord . “As the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts. (Isaiah 55:8-9)           The person with the Spirit makes judgments about all things, but such a person is not subject to merely human judgments,   for, “Who has known the mind of the Lord      so as to instruct him?” But we have the mind of Christ. (I Corinthians 2:15-16) If you read about the ancient gods of the various peoples, you’ll find that they think just like people. In fact, they think just like the sort of people we really wouldn’t want to be around. They think like the most corrupt Hollywood producer or, like hormone overloaded teens with no upbringing.   It’s embarrassing to read. I have a friend who argues that because God is not just like us, He is so vastly dif...

Meditations of the Heart

  May these words of my mouth and this meditation of my heart be pleasing in your sight, Lord, my Rock and my Redeemer. (Psalm19:14)           As I started writing this post, I noted that the meditations of my heart are all over the mental landscape, from a hub where eight superhighways come together to a lunar or nuclear landscape. Do you see my error? The moment I read the word meditation , I think about thoughts. But what’s described here is the meditations of our hearts ; our wills.           While the meditations of our minds may be all over the place, the meditations of our wills tend to be a little more stable by the time we are adults. We no longer tend to want to pursue the ten separate careers we did in any given day as children. Part of this is humble acceptance of reality. We come to understand that we can’t do it all. I think another part of it is disappointmen...