While thumbing through my Bible, I noticed a highlighted passage in Psalms. It says, “O Lord, I give my life to you. I trust in you, my God! Do not let me be disgraced.” Next to it I’d written, “God’s promise to me in my crisis,” and I’d penned the date. I remember that disaster well. How colossal and insurmountable it seemed at the time.
Strange how the event I thought would be my undoing is now nothing more than a note in my Bible and a memory in my mind. My Bible is full of notes, prayers, and highlighted verses I’ve clung to. They tell the story of my life because they show my Heavenly Father’s faithfulness to me. That story reminds me I truly am living the life I had prayed for.
I was talking to a friend recently, and she was telling me how stressful her life has become. She runs a successful business, has children, and has a new marriage. As she caught herself complaining, she stopped and said, “I have all the things I’ve asked God for my entire life. Why am I complaining?!”
I believe many of us are living our best lives, the lives we have prayed for. We have homes, careers, cars, bank accounts, children, and spouses. But what do we complain about? Housework, job stress, car payments, finances, unruly children, and difficult spouses. The things we pray for become the things we complain about. When we look at the negatives attached to our positives, our best lives turn into our stress lives.
Proverbs 14:4 says, “Where there are no oxen, the manger is clean, but abundant crops come by the strength of the ox.” Back then, that meant if you had an ox, you would have ox poop, but the ox was a good thing. It brought abundance, even though you would have to shovel ox apples out of the stall. Ancient wisdom that’s still applicable today.
With family, careers, homes, and all those other things we take for granted, we will inevitably have issues that pop up. But do we really think that our Heavenly Father will give us abundance without being there to help us when those issues arise? Preposterous!
I love my career and all it entails. I’m able to talk about Jesus and help people for a living. But running Caring Counseling brings ox apples. But I’ve changed the way I shovel those apples.
When problems arise, I look to Heaven and tell the Lord, “It looks like You’ve got a problem to deal with,” and I leave it in His hands. When I’m tempted to pick it back up, I look to Him and say, “Don’t know what you are going to do about that problem of Yours, but I know You will handle it.” Then I go back to living my best life. I’m done complaining and stressing about the abundant life Jesus died to give me. Especially when my Bible is there to remind me of God’s 100% track record of slaying my giants.
How about you? Are you tired of the seemingly endless problems in your life? How about you join me and give them to God. Let God be the one with all the problems, not us. Let’s enjoy our best lives!
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