Quit Trying

When was the last time the soundest advice you heard on a subject was "quit trying?" Well, that's exactly what it was for me after a talk with my dad a couple weeks ago. You see, I had gotten caught in the trap that far too many Christians fall into. I had a problem and I was trying to get out of it. I thought I needed to trust God more, you know, have some more of that F-word we're all so keen on. So I thought if I read the Bible and saw where God could be trusted that I could muster up enough to move on . . . too bad it didn't work that way. I was trying so hard to do (and do it myself) what I thought God wanted me to do. But then I received some interesting advice: "Quit trying." It still seems weird to me, but it also has appeared to be Biblically sound. I needed to quit trying so hard to do things myself and allow God to show me His faithfulness and show me that I could trust Him. It seemed weird to me at first, even wrong, but the Bible is FILLED with examples of God proving his faithfulness and love to people. He showed it to Moses (before and after the Exodus), the 1st gen. of Israelites, Joshua, the 2nd gen. of Israelites, Noah, everyone Christ provided miracles for, and the list goes on. I needed to quit trying. We don't have to become superChristians that build ourselves up to God's standards. We can let God show Himself to us and build us in our faith through how He provides for us. The most basic of all Christian commandments, loving God, can only be done because of what God did for us first - I John 4:19 "We love BECAUSE He first loved us."  It's not hypocritical or blasphemes; it's letting God be the center of our faith . . . and sometimes that seems weird for us in a culture where we've moved so far away from it.