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Daily Devotional – RELY ON GOD

By November 4, 2016Daily Devotionals

RELY ON GOD

Prayer:  May we always trust and rely on You Lord.

Scripture:  For the Lord GOD helps Me, Therefore , I am not disgraced ; Therefore , I have set My face like flint, And I know that I will not be ashamed. 8 He who vindicates Me is near; Who will contend with Me? Let us stand up to each other; Who has a case against Me? Let him draw near to Me. 9 Behold, the Lord GOD helps Me; Who is he who condemns Me? Behold, they will all wear out like a garment; The moth will eat them. 10 Who is among you that fears the LORD, That obeys the voice of His servant, That walks in darkness and has no light? Let him trust in the name of the LORD and rely on his God.

Isaiah 50: 7-10 NAS

While getting ready for school one morning, I told my daughter Emily to go get all the supplies that we needed so I could braid her hair. She took off up the stairs and yelled back those four words that absolutely break a Mother’s heart, “I don’t need you.” Now you should know that Emily was six years old with long hair that passed her hips. I knew that she NEEDED me to braid all that hair, but she thought that she could handle it on her own and so I waited downstairs.

Time passed and I called up to her that the bus would be here soon – no reply. I called a five-minute warning – still no reply. Another minute passed and I began to walk upstairs and asked, “Emily is your hair braided?” She called out; “Don’t come in!” as I walked into her room and found her with more knots in her hair than a Barbie doll that had been stuffed in a drawer for months. Emily knew she needed to cover for herself so she sat up proudly and said, “I decided to do it another way.” “So you meant for it to turn out this way?” I asked. “Yep!” she exclaimed. Well there was no way I could let her go to school and suffer the teasing of the whole school. Moving her to look at herself in the mirror I asked, “Would you like me to braid it?” Luckily she was not so stubborn that she wanted to go to school looking like that and she took the pain while I carefully brushed out each knot then drove her to school. She was very grateful and it was a life lesson that she still remembers now as a high school student.

I realized how often God must go through this scenario with us. How often have I run away to complete a task I am not nearly capable of accomplishing calling out to God, “I don’t need you” as if He is going to be so proud of me for taking off and doing this myself. As I feel the Spirit tugging at my heart to let Him help, I remain silent as Emily did knowing that I am working myself into a fine mess. When confronted with His presence I announce that I have decided to go a different direction, to do something else, like I had a better idea and moved on. Then when I have reached the end of all I know how to do, God gives me a gentle glimpse of the mess I have made like when I showed Emily to the mirror, and without sarcasm or an “I told you so,” He gently undoes our mess and takes us to the place He planned, the place we need to be.  Lord, I DO need you, and I am so grateful!

Copyright Kathy Branzell. Email [email protected]