God Wants To Be The Voice In Our Decisions

There is no shortage of times in my life when I have called out to God in the midst of my distress. It is also truth that the times I have called out to God in my distress GREATLY outnumber the times I have turned to God in the midst of my decisions that ultimately led to the distress.

It's easy to come to believe I serve a God who really doesn't have much interest in preventing my struggles. I have so many of them, how could the truth be otherwise?

In hindsight of those struggles, the answer to that is generally pretty clear. I can't accuse God of not showing up in my struggles when I totally ignored God when I was making decisions that led to my struggles.

I can't choose my own personal guidance while ignoring God's and then turn to him in distress, wondering - God, why did you let this all go so very south.

When we trade God's thoughts for our own thoughts, that often has a cost.

When life doesn't go better because we pretend we didn't know better - well, God knows better. When God is showing up in our lives with a rescue plan, God knows better than anyone that this was a totally preventable rescue.

Preventable by US, not him.

When I give my boys instructions and they choose to follow their own impulses instead - and that doesn't work out so well - I will always be there to be part of the rescue plan, while likely reminding them that trading instructions we don't like for impulses we think we will - that has a cost.

That's not the same as I told you so.

Or maybe it is - I frequently hear God say to me - I told you so.

Not out of ego or self-value, but out of a love that wants to see us escape struggles before the struggles, not after them. Out of a love that wants us to know that his instructions aren't to deprive us but to as much as possible keep destruction outside of us.

God will always be there in our distress. But God will always long to be a part of our lives long before the distress ever arrives.

We will all have thoughts today. I have found it helpful to stop and ask God for a few of his. Trading a few of ours for a few of his can prevent a lot of struggles.