God, Be God, All By Yourself!

Until we totally commit our troubles and burdens to God, that is, until we leave our cares with God alone, we will not be able to fully trust God, and we will surely sabotage His ability to work on our behalf.

It is wrong to say God cannot be fully trusted to work on our behalf, if we have not yet totally committed our troubles and burdens to Him. I say, Lord help us to pray the seven-word prayer that I have often heard my dear friend, Brother Earl Clarke pray: God, You be God, all by Yourself.

God doesn't need our help to be God. When we totally commit our cares to Him and leave them with Him, we take our hands off and only then do we really begin to fully trust Him alone with those cares. God is then able to work out those things we have totally committed to Him in His wonderful ways -- ways that we never could have imagined.

In a few words: If we will totally commit our cares, our kids, our burdens to God and take our hands off, we can finally begin to fully trust God to be God. Then and only then God can work!

2 Kings 4:8-37 (NLT) -- (8) One day Elisha went to the town of Shunem. A wealthy woman lived there, and she invited him to eat some food. From then on, whenever he passed that way, he would stop there to eat. (9) She said to her husband, "I am sure this man who stops in from time to time is a holy man of God. (10) Let’s make a little room for him on the roof and furnish it with a bed, a table, a chair, and a lamp. Then he will have a place to stay whenever he comes by." (11) One day Elisha returned to Shunem, and he went up to his room to rest. (12) He said to his servant Gehazi, "Tell the woman I want to speak to her." When she arrived, (13) Elisha said to Gehazi, "Tell her that we appreciate the kind concern she has shown us. Now ask her what we can do for her. Does she want me to put in a good word for her to the king or to the commander of the army?" "No," she replied, "my family takes good care of me." (14) Later Elisha asked Gehazi, "What do you think we can do for her?" He suggested, "She doesn’t have a son, and her husband is an old man." (15)"Call her back again," Elisha told him. When the woman returned, Elisha said to her as she stood in the doorway, (16) "Next year at about this time you will be holding a son in your arms!" "No, my lord!" she protested. "Please don’t lie to me like that, O man of God." (17) But sure enough, the woman soon became pregnant. And at that time the following year she had a son, just as Elisha had said. (18) One day when her child was older, he went out to visit his father, who was working with the harvesters. (19) Suddenly he complained, "My head hurts! My head hurts!" His father said to one of the servants, "Carry him home to his mother." (20) So the servant took him home, and his mother held him on her lap. But around noontime he died. (21) She carried him up to the bed of the man of God, then shut the door and left him there. (22) She sent a message to her husband: "Send one of the servants and a donkey so that I can hurry to the man of God and come right back." (23)"Why today?" he asked. "It is neither a new moon festival nor a Sabbath." But she said, "It’s all right." (24) So she saddled the donkey and said to the servant, "Hurry! Don’t slow down on my account unless I tell you to." (25) As she approached the man of God at Mount Carmel, Elisha saw her in the distance. He said to Gehazi, "Look, the woman from Shunem is coming. (26) Run out to meet her and ask her, ‘Is everything all right with you, with your husband, and with your child?’" "Yes," the woman told Gehazi, "everything is fine." (27) But when she came to the man of God at the mountain, she fell to the ground before him and caught hold of his feet. Gehazi began to push her away, but the man of God said, "Leave her alone. Something is troubling her deeply, and the LORD has not told me what it is." (28) Then she said, "It was you, my lord, who said I would have a son. And didn’t I tell you not to raise my hopes?" (29) Then Elisha said to Gehazi, "Get ready to travel; take my staff and go! Don’t talk to anyone along the way. Go quickly and lay the staff on the child’s face." (30) But the boy’s mother said, "As surely as the LORD lives and you yourself live, I won’t go home unless you go with me." So Elisha returned with her. (31) Gehazi hurried on ahead and laid the staff on the child’s face, but nothing happened. There was no sign of life. He returned to meet Elisha and told him, "The child is still dead." (32) When Elisha arrived, the child was indeed dead, lying there on the prophet’s bed. (33) He went in alone and shut the door behind him and prayed to the LORD. (34) Then he lay down on the child’s body, placing his mouth on the child’s mouth, his eyes on the child’s eyes, and his hands on the child’s hands. And the child’s body began to grow warm again! (35) Elisha got up and walked back and forth in the room a few times. Then he stretched himself out again on the child. This time the boy sneezed seven times and opened his eyes! (36) Then Elisha summoned Gehazi. "Call the child’s mother!" he said. And when she came in, Elisha said, "Here, take your son!" (37) She fell at his feet, overwhelmed with gratitude. Then she picked up her son and carried him downstairs.

IF MY PEOPLE... WILL? I WILL! God's Promise in 2 Chron. 7:14.
Grateful