a Living with dread or foreboding are awful and waste a lot of our energy, focus and happiness. There seems to be no end to the negative while we are waiting for the other foot to fall. Having one foot already on our neck is bad enough. But when the other foot falls it may seem like it's more than we can bear. It's not like we plan on things to go wrong as most of us don't do that. It's more like our plate is full, we are at the buffet and someone puts yet something more on our plate. We can't do it all. We can't say it all. We can't be everything to everyone. We reach overload capacity and it seems as if something has to give. Then it comes, that feeling of dread or hopelessness that puts us in a defensive position and we wonder if the other foot is going to fall. That last straw on the camels back causing us to break. Will it come? What will happen? For the Christian this may be a familiar feeling, repeated often and without solution. That's not how God intends our lives to be lived. There is no forward focus in this kind of living. There is no victory and there is no peace. That's when it may hit you and you turn to someone, something, or yourself to make your world or situation better.
Wrong move. Every step we take to control or fix our situation are going to be less than what God can do and wants to do in our lives. If we are without peace we know we are out of the will of God. The proverbial other foot is manufactured by a world that wants us to abandon God. Speaking from personal experience I can tell you that this works and we do abandon God. Sometimes it's just the big stuff that overwhelms us and we see no answer or solution. Sometimes it's the small stuff that seems to crowd into our lives when we aren't looking. Nevertheless, it happens and when it does we are not in a good space. Living with anxiety, guilt, shame and loneliness are destructive forces that tear at the fabric of who God is in your life. That last 5 words should be sticking in your mind as something that is wrong. It's not who God is in our lives that counts. It's who we are in the life God gives us that counts. We turn things around and suddenly we find ourselves in a bad space. Taking our eyes off Jesus and putting them on ourselves or others to make everything work doesn't work.
Whether you and I admit it, we try to be the god of our life. We fail miserably but we still try to do this futile act. It happens quite often and subtly so we don't tend to notice the take over. It may begin with YOU deciding you don't have time to pray. YOU deciding what to wear. YOU deciding what you will do during your day. YOU deciding whom to talk to and who to not talk to. YOU deciding how best to conquer problems, seek solutions and divide the truth without asking God. The Bible says in James that you ask and receive not because you ask with wrong motives. If we aren't seeking God's answer to our situations then we are bound to ask ourselves and others. Bad move. But it's our choice. We can choose to live our life or we can choose to abandon our life and let God live through us. When we choose the latter we choose peace. When we choose the former we should expect lack of peace. It's your choice and it's my choice. What will we choose today?
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