In a small community, there was a parish where everybody knows who their neighbors are. After a Thanksgiving mass, children one by one give gifts to their Parish Priest. As the children came with their gifts, the priest told them to halt for a while as he will guess what was inside the box. A child came and the priest said, “That gift is loaves of bread!” When he opened the gift, it was bread, and the children were stunned in surprise as the priest has been able to guess what was inside the box. He told the children, “Your Father knows best!” The priest knows that the child is a son of a baker.
Another child came, and the priest told the child “inside that box are eggs” because he knows that she was a daughter of a farmer. The children clapped in surprise and the priest said to them “I told you your Father knows best!” then the last child, a son of a winemaker came and the priest told him, “Boy I know that your gift is a bottle of wine!” The boy said “No Father”. He handed it over to the priest and the priest holds the box, shake it and touch something is wet underneath. “I told you it is a wine!” The boy nods his head. The priest tastes it and he said: “this is not a wine!” He tastes it again and he said it is neither brandy nor whiskey also. Then he asked the boy,” what is this little boy?” the boy said, “Father that is a puppy”.
How many times do we commit mistakes and wrong decisions in life? Maybe not once.
The reason is that we usually rely on our own understanding.
We always thought we can do it on our own, but realize in the end that we fail.
Why? We rely upon and presume we can do it. Maybe because we know we have connections, we know people who can do it for us, we have enough resources and we are equipped with much knowledge to do it.
But the truth is, apart from God we cannot do anything.
Not by might nor by power but by spirit said the Lord.
We have to rely upon that our God is able to do exceedingly beyond what we can do
Proverbs, says, the mind of man plans his way but the Lord directs his steps.
To rely on means:
1. REMEMBER the good things He has done.
We have to always remember the good things God has done for us.
Count the number of blessings we received and you will be relieved from all your worries and fears.
When David presented himself in front of King Saul to fight Goliath, King Saul told him that he is just a boy, so small to face the opponent. But David replies that how God delivered him from the paw of both the lion and the bear, God will deliver him from the hand of this Goliath as well.
David remembers what God has done to him
When a thought comes to me that I need financial blessings, I just remember the times when I was an ice cream vendor. In spite of rainy days, His blessings were abundant even on rainy days.
Whenever I am sick, I just remember the time that I was once afflicted with a skin disease and God healed me.
When we start to count our blessings, we will never stop. Have we counted our blessings lately?
Remember always the bigness of God rather than the bigness of our circumstances.
He is bigger than any problems and circumstances we are facing.
2. EXERCISE our FAITH
Faith is a gift that we need to exercise. Picture out that the answer to our prayers is just right there. It is seeing things that cannot be seen by our naked eyes.
Rely upon that God’s answer is just right here. It’s available and you have received it. In prayer, we have to thank Him for the answered request.
Six years back, I and my wife prayed for a baby boy and there was what we wrote always in our prayer request. Every time we visit the clinic for check-ups and ultrasounds, the doctors always told us that it was a girl. The image they could see was a girl. To be sure, we even go for a 3-dimensional scan and expect what? The image says that it was a girl.
On the day that Jona delivered, we were amazed because it was a lovely, healthy baby boy and we named him Michael Gabriel.
Logic says that to see is to believe. If our eyes can’t see, our mind tells us that it does not exist. Faith is seeing beyond what our eyes can’t see.
But God’s principle is different. Believe and you will see. Believe and you allow Him to work wonders in our life. Abraham believes and it accounts for him for righteousness.
The more we exercise, our muscles expand. The more we practice our faith, the more our trust in Him grows.
Exercise our faith, there’s nothing to lose.
3. LEAN NOT ON OUR UNDERSTANDING
To fully rely on God, we lean not on what we know. We lean not on what we can do or what others can do to us.
It does not mean that we don’t trust ourselves.
Nor do we have low self-esteem and lack self-confidence.
It does not mean that we don’t trust others’ ability to help us.
Our plan is different from His plan. Things work according to His divine plan and purpose.
Things we might not understand, but He has a greater purpose.
We don’t boast or brag about what we can do.
King Saul thought that his sword and his armor would help David defeat the enemy. Saul thought that Goliath, a veteran warrior since his younger age would be enough to win.
Humble ourselves before God because he knows best.
4. YEARN on His power to do
David used his sling and five smooth stones he took from the brook to defeat Goliath.
Moses used his stick to perform miracles. Joshua and his men use seven trumpets of ram’s horn and their shout to trample the wall of Jericho.
Jesus used mud to heal a blind man. He used the five loaves of bread and fish to feed thousands of people. He turned water into the finest jars of wine.
God is able to do in His power to use whatever we have.
He can turn even our difficulties into opportunities. Our suffering into blessings. Our weakness into a strength.
Never focus on our fears as fears defeat us inside. The soldiers were already defeated even though they have not yet fully engaged with their enemies because by their fears already crushed them.
But David won the battle because he don’t rely on his power but on the power of His God.
Our God never changes. He is the same God who can turn our fears into power.
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