The Correct Order!

I’m going to propose something tonight you may find a bit insulting. We all learned a certain way to live life. Because we were unaware and did not know better we were easy prey. We were taught a way to live that really didn’t involve God. Oh sure, we made obligatory appearances and some attended church on the regular, but aside from those prescribed times, we really didn’t involve Him in our lives. Some good folk believed in Him, but did not necessarily believe Him. Absent His help and His guidance, we figured out patterns and made rules and drew conclusions about how life really worked. Trouble is, no one could really agree on anything, except that God was out there somewhere, way far out there and depending upon His mood and depending on the day and depending on the character of the person and depending on things done in the past, He may or may not avail Himself in the situation and if He didn’t it must have been His will. So, apparently alone and left to our own inventions, we came up with the order about how life works best. The proper order thus being my life is 100% my responsibility and anything that happens to me good or bad is my fault and what I get is what I need and the load is mine to carry alone. I must involve myself in a perpetual puzzle concerned with making my life turn out well. It does not matter the cost. If I’m to succeed, if I’m to have a blessed life, it is entirely up to me. Order: 1. Me 2. Everything else. Oh, I’m not trying to accuse anyone of being selfish. Good Lord, we all have a healthy concern with ourselves. I’m talking about wrongly learning that we had to become our own sufficiency, solving all challenges, earning more and more and more, constantly fixing and adjusting and changing to meet the next most popular key to victory. And that life, that which most of the planet is engaged with, is exhausting, futile and wholly unnecessary. It is a delusion. A cleverly devised ruse to keep your focus entrenched upon yourself rather than seeking outside yourself. It is epic self-sufficiency promulgated by men that do not understand either. It is not the order our Creator intended when He masterminded the plans. Life was never meant to be lived outside of God. Life without God is reduced to mere existence. Breathing maybe, but long since already dead. The correct order was always and will forever be God first in order. 1. God 2. Man 3. Everything else. We were never asked or expected to navigate this thing alone. Or worse, expected to somehow become our own sufficiency in all things. If you have been playing that game, I feel sorry for you. Learn the correct order.

The world bears fruit of just how many wonderful people have been caught up in this cycle. Working 70 hours a week to scrape by and provide all the expectations. Weight of the world on your shoulders as you foolishly try to figure it out as you go, cuts and scrapes and all. Pedaling as fast as you can in the rat race while keeping a discerning eye out for the next thing to hurt you or your family. The real tragedy here is that you and I control nothing, outside of what we do with our minds and bodies. “…except the LORD keep the city, the watchman waketh but in vain.” All of your vigilance will not get the job done. You and I are simply not big enough on our own to manage this thing properly. There are just too many variables, not just in what you can see, but in what you cannot see. The order they taught us was wrong. So, so wrong. You and I are here so that we may discover who God is, clearly evidenced by His creation, in order to learn of Him and live this life with Him, Father and son, Father and daughter. The correct order is God first and foremost, then the rest of life? Duck soup! The correct order.

It might not have dawned on you when you were raising children that you were taking part in a very specific design. You patterned to your children that the parent’s job is to provide for all of the needs of the child. All of the needs, emotional, physical, intellectual, emotional and on. Why? In order to teach the child that in the same way he relied upon his folks, he would rely upon God when he became an adult. That is the proper order. God is not asking you to figure this thing out without Him. He is not far, far away from you either. His job is to provide all that you need as His child. All that you need! Unlike you and me, He is all knowing, everywhere present and get this, can see the future. No pending peril surprises Him. He is not affected by crazy governments or financial markets, as well as health problems or incurable diseases, so called. Life with Him is life above all that burden and weight and suffering. How much better would your life be if you gave up that number one slot? How much easier things would become and how much peace could you enjoy? I’m not offering you something with strings attached. I’m offering you escape from the burden existence you have been enduring. I’m offering you life. Real life in the correct order.

It really doesn’t matter who you have been in the past or even who you are right now. What matters is are you willing to give up that pilot seat and learn to enjoy the ride. The life you want, God wants for you as well, in detail. No need to be so smart. You aren’t giving up anything outside of your former illusion of control. There truly is Someone that is in control and this blog is about Him today. Get back to life in the proper order and see for yourself. Don’t wait until you are at your wit’s end? He is not opposing you. He is waiting for you to find Him. Seek Him first. That is the only order that makes sense.

Just some good thoughts…