“How do I get to the place where asking God first comes naturally?”
This was the question posed to me recently when I reminded someone close to me to pray about a difficult situation in their life. I paused…
”It takes practice – discipline – the more you go to God with your questions and problems intentionally – the more natural it becomes. It is easy to go to a friend or family member first, but they don’t have the answers like God does.”
“For my thoughts are not your thoughts,
neither are your ways my ways,”
declares the Lord.
“As the heavens are higher than the earth,
so are my ways higher than your ways
and my thoughts than your thoughts.”Isaiah 55:8-9
“When we continually go to a person before God – expecting them to fix our problems and have the answers to our deep spiritual questions, it’s actually idol worship,” I continued. “Yikes, I thought – where did that come from?” It was a thought that had been forming for some time but when I voiced it out loud, I instantly felt convicted. This has long been a struggle for me. And apparently, I needed that lesson to be reinforced myself!
In Sunday School this week, the question was asked, “How often do you go to God first – if at all – with your questions and problems?”
I reiterated what I spoke out loud in the other conversation and our teacher asked me to clarify. I stumbled through an example of how I have often used my mom as my go-to problem solver. While that is not bad in and of itself, it becomes idol worship when I choose to rely on her and her wisdom instead of and before the wisdom of God. My mom is a wise and godly woman, but she still does not have the power and wisdom that God can provide. Anything – or anyone – I put before or above God is an idol. Even my mama!
I was reminded of a verse in 2 Chronicles 16
”For the eyes of the LORD range throughout the earth to strengthen those whose hearts are fully committed to him.”
2 Chronicles 16:9
As I looked back on that verse today, I got a little more context by reading the full passage (read 2 Chronicles 16:7-9 or more for the full story).
Asa had known the faithfulness of the LORD in previous encounters, but – as my NIV Study Bible notes – he suffered from faithless forgetfulness. We might call this short-term memory loss. Asa forgot to trust in the LORD – he lost confidence in Him. Why? Certainly not because God had stopped being faithful!
“If we are faithless, he remains faithful, for he cannot disown himself.”
2 Timothy 2:13
When Asa forgot to be faithful in trusting God, he chose instead to place his faith in a person. How often have I done this? Too many to recount.
Here is more from the commentary in my Study Bible notes.
”It is not sin to use human means to solve our problems, but it is a sin to trust them more than God, to think their ways are better than God’s ways, or to leave God completely out of the problem-solving process.”
NIV Life Application Study Bible
The prophet, Hanani, explains it like this:
”Because you relied on the king of Aram and not on the LORD your God, the army of the king of Aram has escaped your hand… Yet when you relied on the LORD, he delivered them into your hand.”
2 Chronicles 16:7b, 8b
It begs the question of me, “Who do I rely upon? To whom am I committed?”
“Trust in the Lord and do good;
Live in the land and cultivate faithfulness.
Delight yourself in the Lord;
And He will give you the desires of your heart.
Commit your way to the Lord,
Trust also in Him, and He will do it.
He will bring out your righteousness as the light,
And your judgment as the noonday.”Psalm 37:3-6 (NASB)
Am I forgetfully faithless?
OR
Am I cultivating faithfulness?
”But seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well.”
Matthew 6:33