Day #24

"And He put all things under His feet..." Eph 1:22

And suddenly something sparked in my mind.

Flashback a few hours ago, when I was doing the dishes, with my usual sponge. And it was the pot's turn under the tap. But try as I did, I could not get rid of a particular stain on the bottom of it. It just refused to budge! Frustrated, I tried scrubbing harder, and harder, but to no avail. The stain remained there defiantly.

Now exasperated, I began attacking the stain vigorously with the sponge, determined to have it gone once and for all, no matter what. All it got me was a couple of sore fingers.

As I eyed the stain, I suddenly realised, as my gaze fell upon it, I had a steel ball scourer lying just beside the sponge I had just discarded.

Now why hadn't I thought about using this before?

Immediately I set it to work and to my delight, the stain finally yielded. And it did not even take me a few seconds of scrubbing. And it was then that it struck me, a lingering thought in my mind.

I did not make the relation then, but I certainly do now.

The sponge represents our weaknesses, our inabilities, our stubbornness; while the scourer is the amazing power of God.

For how many times have I obstinately, stubbornly, even arrogantly demand to rely on my own "knowledge", my own "experience", my own "ability" to tackle problems? No matter big or small, my first instinct was usually 'Hey I can handle this.'

I know God is far greater than my problems and my circumstances, and I know that He who is in me is definitely greater than he who is in the world. Yet, time and again I keep coming back to the point where I choose to lean on my own fragile self, rather than depend on God, our rock of faithfulness. The first thing that comes to mind is always to try to solve it on our own strengths, instead of surrendering the problem to God.

And like the sponge, I will often fail.

When will I learn to start using the steel ball scourer as my default response, instead of doing it the hard way every time?

Prayer : Dear Lord, thank You for reminding me that I have not been relying on You as much as I should have. Forgive me for choosing to lean on my own understanding rather than choosing to rest in Your grace. I want to depend on You Lord. Teach me to remember that. For You are Jehovah Jireh, my provider, who will provide me with every need according to Your riches in glory. I want to place my trust in You, I want to place my whole life in Your hands. Teach me how to, Father. Amen.