Just as God moved in the lives of all these people, He is moving in your life right now. He may be moving in a supernatural way or in an ordinary way. But He is moving on your behalf. Whatever may be going on in your life at the moment — good or bad — cast it all on the Lord so you can retire from care.
9
RETIRING FROM SELF CARE
…Believe in the Lord Jesus Christ [give yourself up to Him, take yourself out of your own keeping and entrust yourself into His keeping] and you will be saved.…
ACTS 16:31
This is what Paul and Silas told the Philippian jailer who asked them, “What must I do to be saved?” This is what salvation really means — giving ourselves up to God, taking ourselves out of our own keeping, and entrusting ourselves into His keeping.
God wants to take care of us. He can do a much better job of that if we will avoid a problem called independence, which is really self-care. The desire to take care of ourselves is based on fear. Basically, it stems from the idea that if we do it, we can be sure it will be done right. We are afraid of what might happen if we entrust ourselves totally to God and He doesn’t “come through” for us.
The root problem of independence is trusting ourselves more than we trust God.
We love to have a back-up plan. We may pray and ask God to get involved in our lives, but if He is the least bit slow in responding (at least, to our way of thinking), we are quick to take control back into our own hands.
What we fail to realize is, God has a plan for us too — and His plan is much better than ours.
OUR PLAN VERSUS GOD’S PLAN
For I know the thoughts and plans that I have for you, says the Lord, thoughts and plans for welfare and peace and not for evil, to give you hope in your final outcome.
JEREMIAH 29:11
Have you ever wondered why it sometimes seems God will not allow us to help ourselves when we are faced with a problem? The reason this happens is that God wants to help us, but He wants to do it His way and not our way — because our way usually involves a lot of worry, fretfulness, reasoning, anxiety, and excessive plotting and planning.
The Holy Spirit impressed this fact upon me when a lady sent me a letter with a wonderful testimony about the subject of anxiety and self-care. I would like to share it with you because I think it speaks to all of us:
“I recently attended your women’s conference in St. Louis on the Holy Spirit. When I came to the conference I was anxious that my life wasn’t going to amount to anything for God, and I was afraid that no matter what happened, I was never going to be happy. I had been frustrated and unhappy for about a year and I really needed a breakthrough.
“During the conference I felt God lifting me from many of my worries and cares. I felt a little better after each session. But when I would return home, between the sessions, those same fears and anxious thoughts would attack me all over again.
“During the Saturday session, I gave in the offering, praying that God would deliver me once and for all. I knew God was moving powerfully because several of the women that I sat with received deliverance from their past hurts and pains.
“Finally, after your last session, I decided that I couldn’t face another day anxious and fearful. I bought your tapes ‘Facing Fear and Finding Freedom,’ ‘Be Anxious for Nothing,’ and ‘How To Be Content.’1 I didn’t have the money set aside for them, so then I became worried about how to pay for the other things I had planned to use the money for.
“You also prayed for me after the last session, and you encouraged me to listen to the tapes. Well, I did feel a little tingle in my stomach when you laid hands on me, but that was all. After I left, I put one of your tapes in my car cassette player in hopes that my fears would not attack me before I got home.
“I decided to stop at the Citgo gas station about three minutes from the hotel, and on the way there I realized I didn’t have any money. So I decided to use my debit card, which accessed an account containing my rent money, and to transfer some other money into the account later that day to cover the gas.
“When I arrived at the Citgo gas station, I made sure they accepted the type of credit card that I had. I filled my tank and gave [the attendant] the card to pay for the gas. It was denied. The attendant ran the card though three times, and each time my card was denied. I had no other way to pay for the gas. By then I was sweating, hyperventilating, and having visions of myself dressed in the red and orange Citgo uniform, pumping gas to pay for my bill. I thought my life was over.
“But then four women in a van pulled up to the station. One of them got out and asked me if anything was wrong. And, of course, I told her that I was fine and thanked her for asking. I guess the panicked look on my face gave me away, and she insisted on helping me. Finally, I told her that I needed money to pay for my gas, and immediately she and the other three ladies handed me enough money to pay the bill, and they drove off.
“I paid the bill, returned to my car, and sat down in relief. As soon as I started the engine, God spoke to me. As best that I can remember He said the following: ‘All your life all you do is plan. You get up in the morning, and you plan out your day. While you brush your teeth, you plan what you’re going to wear. During the day, you plan for the evening. You plan what you’re going to eat; you plan what you’re going to study; you plan when you’re going to exercise. All you do all day long is plan, plan, plan.…You even planned how you were going to pay for your gas, and look where it got you.’
“Then He paused and said, ‘I have a plan.’”
Sometimes we have to lay down our plan to hear God’s plan. I believe it is wise to plan our work and work our plan. But we must not become so rooted and grounded in our plan that we argue and resist if God tries to show us a better way.
Obviously we should always have a plan about how we are going to pay our bills. But the woman in this story had such an excessive, elaborate plan that it was confusing. God was trying to make the point with her that she would never enjoy her life until she began trusting God to a much greater degree.
I go to each of my meetings with a definite plan in mind. But many times God changes that plan because He knows better than I do what the people need to hear. If I am not submissive to His will, I am not going to meet the needs of those who have come to hear the Word of God for them.
This woman went on to write: “I was laughing so hard by now I could hardly drive straight down the highway. It is a miracle that I arrived home in one piece. For the rest of the day, God continued to remind me when I would start trying to plan something. He showed me that by planning all the time, I was trying to figure out my future myself, and that I wasn’t fully depending on Him.”
The woman who wrote this letter admitted she had a problem with independence. God does not want us to be independent or codependent. He wants us to be dependent upon Him, because He knows that apart from Him we can do nothing. (John 15:5.)
Finally, this woman ended her testimony by writing: “Not only did God deliver me from anxiety, but He completely destroyed the thinking pattern that was fostering the anxiousness. Since then God has given me the opportunity to tell several friends what has happened to me, and God has touched them and me. I am so thankful for the truth that delivered me from this bondage.”
This woman’s testimony contains the valuable lesson of which we all need to continually remind ourselves: In everything that concerns us, God has a plan, just as He did for Jesus when He sent Him into this world to save us and to serve as our example.
JESUS WAS NOT INDEPENDENT
I am able to do nothing from Myself [independently, of My own accord — but only as I am taught by God and as I get His orders]. Even as I hear, I judge [I decide as I am bidden to decide. As the voice comes to Me, so I give a decision], and My judgment is right (just, righteous), because I do not seek or consult My own will [I have no desire to do what is pleasing to Myself, My own aim, My own purpose] but only the will and pleasure of the Father Who sent Me.
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br /> JOHN 5:30
Jesus did not ask Himself what to do, He consulted God. Instead of following His own will, He followed the will of His Father. When He made a decision, it was right because it was not His decision. It was the will of the One Who Sent Him.
Jesus made it dear He was not independent, out on His own trying to do His own thing. We would do well to follow His example.
Sometimes rather than deciding the will of God and then being obedient to it, we figure out what we want and ask God to bless it. Jesus said He had no desire to do what was pleasing to Himself. His aim and purpose were to do the will and pleasure of His heavenly Father. He said to the people of His day, “What you see Me doing is what I see the Father doing. What You hear Me saying is what I hear the Father saying. I do not speak on My own authority, but on His authority.”
Jesus did not have a problem with independence, and neither should we. We should realize that anything we do independently, apart from God, will fail to bear any good fruit either for Him or for us.
INDEPENDENCE IS CHILDISH
When I was a child, I talked like a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child; now that I have become a man, I am done with childish ways and have put them aside.
1 CORINTHIANS 13:11
When our son Danny was a teenager, he was a wonderful boy. But in many ways he was still a child in his thoughts, attitude, and behavior. Like many adolescents, he was self-centered. Everything in his life had to revolve around him and benefit him. He would get up in the morning talking about his social life, spend the day talking about his social life, and go to bed talking about his social life. He had a plan for every available minute, and it was all aimed at gratifying his own personal desires. His every thought, word, and deed had to do with himself and what would bless him and make him happy when God is the One Who knows what will truly bless us and make us happy and orders our steps to bring us into what He has for us.
Immature Christians are like young children or teenagers who plan everything according to what they think is the best plan for them. If we want to grow up in the Lord, we must learn to seek God’s will and plan for our life rather than our own. We must be determined not to go off independently on our own trying to fulfill our own desires or meet our own needs. Instead, we must trust in the Lord with all our heart and mind, and not lean on our own understanding.
OVERCOMING A SPIRIT OF INDEPENDENCE
Lean on, trust in, and be confident in the Lord with all your heart and mind and do not rely on your own insight or understanding.
In all your ways know, recognize, and acknowledge Him, and He will direct and make straight and plain your paths.
Be not wise in your own eyes; reverently fear and worship the Lord and turn [entirely] away from evil.
PROVERBS 3:5-7
This passage does not mean to say we have to seek a divine word from God about every minute decision we make in the course of our daily lives. That would not be possible. God puts wisdom into us in the form of His Holy Spirit, for us to walk by that wisdom step-by-step. But the Lord does want us to know, recognize, and acknowledge Him. He does want us to be aware of His Spirit and to walk in quiet confidence, trust, and obedience to Him.
Some time ago I heard a well-known minister say, “It has been a long, long time since God has said to me, ‘Do this.’ But that doesn’t bother me, because I’m still busy doing the last thing He told me to do years ago.”
God expects us to walk by wisdom, but He also expects us to be aware of and care about what we are doing. Acknowledging Him in all our ways is so important because He will direct our paths. If we start to go astray one way or the other, He will nudge us and get us back on the right path, as we read in Isaiah 30:21:
And your ears will hear a word behind you, saying, This is the way; walk in it, when you turn to the right hand and when you turn to the left.
It is insulting to God when we go through life planning everything without consulting Him or caring what He thinks, yet expecting Him to make everything work out as we envision just because it is what we want.
Like pride, independence is a sin. Independence displays a lack of trust in God. It says, “I want to take care of myself because if I do things my way, I know they will get done right.” It doesn’t trust God’s way of handling something to be better than the person’s own plan.
How many of us are like that? We don’t want anybody to help us because we don’t want to become dependent upon anyone. We would rather do things on our own than ask for help. That’s exactly why God gives each of us only a part of the answer, so we will have to work together to accomplish His will in our lives.
If we want to do the will of God, we must be willing to get involved with other people.
For some of us with strong, independent personalities, that is a real problem. Usually the stronger our personality, the more weaknesses and inabilities God has to leave in us so we have no choice but to lean on Him and on others.
In 2 Chronicles 20, we read King Jehoshaphat’s prayer to the Lord when Judah was faced with an invasion by enemies who were more powerful than they were. He acknowledged that he and his people had no might to stand against such a great company, adding, “We don’t know what to do, Lord, but our eyes are on You.” (v. 12.)
That is the statement of a person who is dependent on God, not independent: “I don’t know what to do, Lord, and have no ability to do it if I did know, but my eyes are on You.”
It pleases our heavenly Father when we acknowledge and confess to Him our inability to run our own lives. That, is what we are doing when we say, “Father, help me! I need You!”
God wants us to be dependent upon Him, and He wants us to verbalize that dependence, just as Jesus did. When we come to Him in prayer, He wants us to say: “Father, I need You. Apart from You I can do nothing. Without You, I am hopeless. Unless You lead, guide, strengthen, and uphold me, I will fail every time.”
THE INCOMPETENT, COMPETENT TWELVE
[This is] because the foolish thing [that has its source in] God is wiser than men, and the weak thing [that springs] from God is stronger than men.
For [simply] consider your own call, brethren; not many [of you were considered to be] wise according to human estimates and standards, not many influential and powerful, not many of high and noble birth.
[No] for God selected (deliberately chose) what in the world is foolish to put the wise to shame, and what the world calls weak to put the strong to shame.
And God also selected (deliberately chose) what in the world is lowborn and insignificant and branded and treated with contempt, even the things that are nothing, that He might depose and bring to nothing the things that are,
So that no mortal man should [have pretense for glorying and] boast in the presence of God.
1 CORINTHIANS 1:25-29
We must remember it is not our gifts that matter, it is God’s anointing. God usually doesn’t call people because of their great wisdom, knowledge, or ability; rather, He calls them because of their foolishness, ignorance, and weakness so that all the glory will go to Him and not to them.
God either calls people with talent then spends years teaching them that without His anointing their talents will do them absolutely no good, or He calls people who are so incapable they know the only way they can ever hope to do anything is by leaning totally on Him every second.
As Paul has written, many of us fall into that second category. In that respect, we are no different from the first disciples Jesus called.
The following is a letter supposedly written to Jesus by the Jordan Management Consultant firm in Jerusalem, which is reporting its findings on the twelve men He has submitted for evaluation:
Dear Sir:
Thank you for submitting the resumes of the twelve men you have picked for management positions in your new organization. All of them have taken our battery of tests; and we have not only run the results through our computer, but also arranged personal interviews for each o
f them with our psychologist and vocational aptitude consultant.…
It is the staff opinion that most of your nominees are lacking in background, education, and vocational aptitude for the type of enterprise you are undertaking. They do not have the team concept. We would recommend that you continue your search for persons of experience in managerial ability and proven capability.
Simon Peter is emotionally unstable and given to fits of temper. Andrew has absolutely no qualities of leadership. The two brothers, James and John, the sons of Zebedee, place personal interest above company loyalty. Thomas demonstrates a questioning attitude that would tend to undermine morale. We feel that it is our duty to tell you that Matthew has been blacklisted by the Greater Jerusalem Better Business Bureau. James, the son of Alphaeus, and Thaddeus definitely have radical leanings, and they both registered a high score on the manic depressive scale.
One of the candidates, however, shows great potential. He is a man of ability and resourcefulness, meets people well, has a keen business mind, and has contacts in high places. He is highly motivated, ambitious, and responsible. We recommend Judas Iscariot as your controller and right hand man. All of the other profiles are self-explanatory.2
Basically, what this consulting firm was saying is that the people Jesus chose as His disciples were all losers and that He would get nowhere with them because they would never be of any value to Him.