Sometimes I joke around and I say things like, “If you give me long enough I can mess things up pretty good.” I actually made this comment this week to a friend of mine during an email conversation we were having. I think it’s pretty obvious the point there. I also say, “If I’ll get out of God‘s way good things will happen.” Once again pretty obvious. Finally, another saying I like to use is, “Let’s not put God in a box. Keep him out of the box and watch what happens.” Still yet, pretty obvious what I’m trying to say. If we will just stay in God, letting him control what we’re doing, good things will happen. Our actions will be blessed. He will see it through.
Often times, we decide to do things on our own. To take God out of the equation. We believe that we are capable going solo. I don’t know about you, but I have failed over and over doing things on my own. There is a great example of this in the Bible. The Israelites had decided to remove God from there daily lives. Maybe not intentionally. Or…maybe intentionally. Either way, their decisions led to them being exiled when Babylon took over. Even though they chose to go it alone, and they failed miserably, God was still there for them.
God told the Israelites that it would be 70 years of exile. 70 years! He also told them to plant gardens. He told them to build houses. He told them to seek peace. Put yourself in that situation. How would you have handled that? 70 years of doing these things all while in exile? Could you have handled that? God had plans for the Israelites. After 70 years, the exile ended. During that time they had been obedient to God. That kept him in control. Letting him guide them. And he took them out of the darkness. Just like he can do for us today. We are going to go through tough times and easy times. That is part of being in this world. Whatever we face, we can go through it. We can get through it. Because God will see us through it. So today, let’s keep him in the equation. Let’s get him out of the box. Let’s let him lead the way. Because he has plans for us. And he provides us hope.
