Don't Try to Resolve it Yourself

By: Victoria Zangaro

I remember one time when I was around five years old, my parents were doing the grocery shopping for the week. That day, I wanted to bring as many soda bottles as I could at once. Why? I thought that I was strong enough and could do it all by myself. While in the midst of trying to help and show off my strength, the bottles fell down all over my driveway. After that, my mom and dad would come to help me pick up all the bottles. That is how God is with us! 

Sometimes, we are a little too high on our own horse. Sometimes, we think to ourselves, "I got this. I can do it all on my own." Let's be honest with ourselves about ourselves, friends . . . we generally think we know everything about everything. 

And sadly, this attitude isn't always just directed at our parents or teachers; sometimes we even approach our relationship with God and our prayer life this way. Sometimes, instead of praying with thanksgiving, humility, repentance, love, and surrender, we instead tell God our plan and how it is supposed to just unfold exactly like we said. We tell Him what His will should be instead of asking that His will be done in our lives. In Genesis 16, we see Abraham, the man called the father of faith and friend of God, take things into his hands, and that has caused problems that we see to this day as two nations, the nations of his sons Isaac and Ishmael, are still in constant conflict. 

Many times, when we're in the middle, and have waited for so long, we think that we need to resolve it on our own. We're tired of waiting on God's plan, and want to be the ones in control. I don’t know how your experience with taking matters into your own hands has gone, but mine never ends well. 

When we take God out of the picture (the light), what we end up is with darkness. There is absolutely nothing good that comes from the dark, it only brings confusion and fear. 

It is such good news to know that we're not expected to figure things out on our own! Just like the soda bottles fell on my driveway and my parents came to help, God will always help us when we fall, even if we fall because we decided to do things our way instead of His way. He will always lift us up, and help us. He will never leave us or forsake us. We just need to come to Him and place our burdens on Him. Jesus tells us this in Matthew 11:28–30 when He says, "Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy and my burden is light.”

Friends, whenever we're in the middle of something, God is always working, always redeeming, always leading and guiding for our good and His glory. His plan always leads to our redemption and growth. So, if today, you're struggling in the middle, stop trying to carry the weight on your own. Jesus can carry it with you and for you. He can lift the burden of carrying it and He will carry you to victory, redemption, and wholeness!