TODAY’S SIGNATURE VERSE ••• I will instruct you and teach you in the way you should go; I will counsel you with my eye upon you. (Psalm 32:8 ESV)
PRAISE & PRAYER PROMPT ••• The other night, I went to dinner with a couple of friends and we decided to order dessert… because… well, why wouldn’t we? We asked the waiter for his recommendation and I knew what he would say before he said a word… he recommended the cheesecake. The dessert recommendation is ALWAYS cheesecake because I don’t like cheesecake (bleck). My friends and I ended up choosing something else. Okay, fine. Two something elses. Please don’t judge us.
After we placed our order, I said to my friends, “Don’t you feel sort of guilty? Like maybe we owe our waiter an apology for not taking his advice?” We laughed and then simultaneously dug our spoons into hot butter cake with melting vanilla ice cream.
Doesn’t that drive you crazy? When you tell people what they should do and then, they turn around and do the exact opposite…
Huh. Sort of like what has been happening since the Garden of Eden.
God: Don’t eat from that tree.
Adam and Eve: Okay.
Eve to Adam: Want some? (While her mouth is full of the forbidden fruit.)
Yep. God’s been fighting that battle with humans ever since He made us.
In Psalm 32:8, the Lord said, “I will instruct you and teach you in the way you should go; I will counsel you with my eye upon you.”
The whole Bible is full of His direction and instruction, and yet — in countless ways, we continue to do our own thing. It’s like I tell my son — “You just love to do things the hard way…” But that apple doesn’t fall far from the tree.
It’s one thing to ignore the dessert recommendations of a waiter… it’s another to ignore the life-guidance offered by our Creator. After all, as the author of life, He knows a thing or two about the best way to live it. We really aren’t going to enlighten Him by going our own way. He’s not sitting in heaven thinking, “Wow… I think Denise is really on to something… I hadn’t thought about it from that perspective…” I wish. Instead, we just give Him more reasons to face-palm Himself and sit back in awe of our stubbornness.
But rest easy… because as a recent meme so eloquently put it, “When God put a calling on your life, He already factored in your stupidity.” I just love that. I find it so comforting because it means He’s not expecting perfection from me. Just obedience. And while I may be stubborn about obeying the first time around, He always wins. Every. Single. Time. After all, we have that truth straight from Scripture — “Many are the plans in the mind of a man, but it is the purpose of the Lord that will stand” (Proverbs 19:21). So guess what? That means that even when we don’t take His advice, we can’t screw up His plans because His will WILL prevail!
With all that said, why on earth do we keep fighting it? Why don’t we just accept His advice as the BEST advice. The ULTIMATE advice. The THERE-ISN’T-A-BETTER-OPTION-OUT-THERE-CAUSE-THIS-IS-THE-BEST advice.
Well – hate to break it to all of you, but the answer is a very lame, “Because we’re human.” While we won’t get this down perfectly in this lifetime, the amazingly great news is this: He already perfectly loves us. Stubborn streaks and all.
We would do better if we’d spit out the forbidden fruit and say, “Okay, I hear You and choose to obey,” the first time around. But when we don’t, He is quick to forgive us when we repent. And the other great news — we’re teachable. We can learn from our mistakes. We can realize that His way is best and choose to trust even when our instincts tell us differently.
Today, as you pray, thank God for His perfect love for us, even when we don’t do as we should. Thank Him that forgiveness is a repentant heart away… Ask the Holy Spirit to help you lean not on your own understanding, but on the wisdom of His word (Proverbs 3:5-6).
SHARING ••• Please feel free to comment or share this blog with others. Also, download a free Bible-In-A-Year Reading Plan when you subscribe to www.MyGraceFullLife.com! ***Unless noted otherwise, all Scripture references are from the ESV translation.
