Do You Need a Faith Lift?
Today was my first day running again after I injured my ankle. First, I must say YAAAAAAAAHOOOOOOOOOOOO!! I have to admit I was totally dreading even trying. My brain had to talk my fat lazy butt into it, but it didn’t take a quarter mile to start feeling encouraged and feeling so good!
While I was running, I caught myself wondering when my ankle would start hurting. So funny, how negative we can be. I had to tell myself to stop thinking that! It was like I was running, expecting to fail. Dumb! Dumb!
Then, I heard a very profound statement, “you can’t pick and choose what you will trust God with. You can’t have faith that he will work in our life, but not trust that He will do a work in your spouse, your workplace or your children”, paraphrased from Joyce Meyer’s podcast (I listen to her while I run).
I have to admit, I have trusted God with a LOT of things in my life (key word: MY life). I’ve trusted that He knows what’s best for me. Yet, when it comes to other people, or even ailments, I think I struggle to trust Him in those things too. Instead, (as if He can’t handle it) I tend to take things into my own hands. Many times that comes in the form of telling someone how to change, correcting someone when we have no business correcting them, trying to convict someone before God does, etc. We begin to make poor decisions, out of pure impatience, rather than sit back and wait – and just let God work in US, while He is also working (at HIS pace) on everything else.
Who’s Behind the Wheel?
If you reeeally think about it – we trust complete strangers with our life more often than we trust God. I never once called the manager of the department where my car was built to see if everyone did their job. When I drive my car, I trust that other people will stop at the stop lights and drive in their own lane. When I have new tires on my car, I assume they put all the lug nuts on properly. Sadly, I often times trust people more times a day than I trust God. That’s the reality.
So next time you want to test God, question God, doubt God …maybe we need to get our priorities straight and treat Him juuuust a little better than people. Ya think? We can’t keep trusting people more than we trust Him. What an insult. Shoot, we can’t even really trust ourselves sometimes!
Maybe we should let him drive our life, and quit being the worst backseat driver ever – telling Him where to go, what to do, when to stop, when to go, go faster, go slower… Honestly, it’s ridiculous! Frankly, it’s amazing He puts up with any of us! BUT, like a daddy loves his child, He loves us and He wants to give us a million chances to learn, to grow and to become all that He created us to be.
We’d do the same for our child right? Would we lead them astray? Would we not be SO quick to help if they needed us? Sometimes I think we need to remember He is not just God, he’s our Father – and as great as my daddy is, He loves me even more.
Let go and let God.
“And without faith it is impossible to please God, because anyone who comes to him must believe that he exists and that he rewards those who earnestly seek him.” Hebrews 11:6
(read the entire chapter if you are hungry for more) 😉
Inspire Someone:
Bonnie Pfiester
Owner of Lift Vero and motivational "pfitness, pfood and pfaith" blogger in Vero Beach, Florida.
5 Comments
Edie Ravenelle
Funny: I know you meant to use the phrase “riddled with doubt.” However, you wrote it “wrinkled with doubt” which is not only funny but very true. When we aren’t trusting God to lead and instead take the lead ourselves — as I far too often do (I’m the editor who contacted you a bit ago 🙂 — the results can be as crumpled and hard to straighten out as a wrinkled piece of paper. LOVE your posts; don’t worry about the editing as your meanings are always well-guided and that’s what counts :).
Bonnie Pfiester
Actually I MEANT wrinkled – if you reread it you’ll see the play on words (if you are wrinkled with…you may need a (instead of face lift) FAITH lift. 🙂 This was a saying passed down to me by my grandfather.
Faith
Excellent post Bonnie, very touching and truthful to my life. We do trust complete strangers more than we trust in God. And I think a lot of us only turn to Him when things are bad and we need his reassurance and peace of mind. I’ve made a deal with myself that I will have conversations with him every night when I go to bed. And I usually find myself having really long conversations with Him while I’m out on a run (since I don’t wear headphones for fear of getting hit by a car I don’t hear) which gives us time to run down the entire list of my family and friends (and myself) that I have concerns about or I want to make sure He knows they need him. It brings me an amazing calmness and before I know it, my run is over!
I am very thankful for you and your ever-inspiring and motivational posts. 🙂
kb66016
What I struggle with is the “God helps those that help themselves” balance with letting things go and letting him lead. How do we know which to do and when?
Bonnie Pfiester
Although that is a popular saying, it’s not scripture. Ben Franklin might have made it popular, but I think it came from a fable where Hercules said “Man, don’t sprawl there. Get up and put your shoulder to the wheel. The gods help them that help themselves.” There is a little truth to it, but taken out of context. Paul wrote in II Thessalonians 3:10-12, “We gave you this rule: ‘If a man will not work, he shall not eat.’. Basically God’s saying, don’t be lazy. There is a big difference between waiting (and doing nothing) than waiting (and doing what you can). I think the balance is knowing you need to continue doing what God told you to do last until He tells you something different. Letting go is not quitting, it’s just trusting Him. 🙂 I hope that helps.