Devotional Discussion of the Day,

It seems to be a common thing I am noticing on FaceBook, and on Words with Friends.  Many, many people up later at night, (at least 12 in the last couple of nights) looking for some interaction with others.

Of course, for me to notice this… yeah – pretty much I can be up that late as well.

Usually it is because I am trying to discern Mr. Murphy’s strategy to wreck my life.  How Mr. Murphy tries to twist me, those around me, and the situations I encounter – to assure that it will screw up royally, and my life won’t come up smelling like roses, but instead the stuff that makes roses grow beautifully.   How much of my life is determined to counter these things – how many ways will I either try to deny, argue, bargain, coerce life into being easy, or enjoyable or happy.    But in order to comprehend doing that, I have to plan for every variable, ever twist, every turn, every option, and my mind goes into high speed, and does not rest.

My usual tactic is to play a game on my phone – one which causes me to function at such a high level of thought – that I emotionally fall asleep and crash.  Or I put on my CPAP mask – and responding in a Pavlovian sense – my body overrides my mind and it shuts down. Sleep occurs – but the dreams don’t provide enough rest.

So where is our hope?  Where is our rest – where is the ability to stop doing what so many of us do, tossing and turning as our mind tries to play God.

Yeah – I said it – we try to play god.  Instead of creating gods in our own image, as the ancients have done for millenia, we just determine that we have to make all the decisions, we have to have all the answers, we have to be prepared for everything.  And when we can’t – we either become fatalism ( “Life a “b@*#&” and then you die” was the phrase in the 80’s.  “Life is pain your Highness” is how a very favorite movie stated it ).  I am a master of that – resigning myself to the ineventual mess ups that occur.  Or we rev – and rev and reve – trying to figure out how to beat this fatalistic ending we “know” is coming.

And we forget the option that is the simplest, and the most effective.  Read these words and realize what they mean:

⁶  So humble yourselves under the mighty power of God, and at the right time he will lift you up in honor. ⁷  Give all your worries and cares to God, for he cares about you. 1 Peter 5:6-7 (NLT

 ³  Trust in the LORD and do good. Then you will live safely in the land and prosper. ⁴  Take delight in the LORD, and he will give you your heart’s desires. ⁵  Commit everything you do to the LORD. Trust him, and he will help you. ⁶  He will make your innocence radiate like the dawn, and the justice of your cause will shine like the noonday sun. ⁷  Be still in the presence of the LORD, and wait patiently for him to act. Don’t worry about evil people who prosper or fret about their wicked schemes.Psalm 37:3-7 (NLT)

Give your burdens to the LORD, and he will take care of you. He will not permit the godly to slip and fall. Psalm 55:22 (NLT)

As for me, I am poor and needy, but the Lord takes thought for me. You are my help and my deliverer; do not delay, O my God! 

Realize that God desires, wants you to depend on Him, it is the very relationship He created you to enjoy.

Let Him take over being God…. He’s got the wisdom, the experience, the power – and most of all – the love for you which uniquely qualifies Him for the job.