When people say they’ve tried God, but He just isn’t for them, it breaks my heart. I used to have that mindset, I used to think my life was resigned to mediocrity and poor luck; that if there was a God out there, He was definitely raining on my daily parade because nothing ever went my way. Then, one day, I had my “eureka!” moment and everything began to change.
You see, I spent a good amount of my time living in the land of “what if” and “if only”, and my mind was convinced that God was up there laughing at my insecurities because, after all, He wasn’t relieving me of any of them. I believed He wasn’t “really” real, just some kind of tool used to keep others in line – you know, like parents use Santa to keep the kids good before Christmas. I believed that I looked the way I did, that the things that happened to me in life, that my angry and bitter thoughts were all because I was just a joke to Him. I used to believe all those supposed “jokes” about “When God was handing out (insert here), you were in the wrong line” So, yeah, I was one of the those “I tried God…” people. I had “tried” Him and given Him up because He didn’t answer my demands my way and when I wanted them done.
Boy, was I wrong! And, I’m not afraid to say that now, either. All it took was an attitude and heart shift on my part – yes my part. All those years I wanted God to do the work, to wave a magic wand and make everything all better. Well, He doesn’t work like that. He gently leads us to a place where we have a choice – to sincerely desire, with all our hearts, to change or to continue walking the same path we’ve been walking with no change. I made a choice and did my part. Guess what my part was? Belief and faith. Belief and faith in Him and His love, belief and faith that Jesus died for me and because of that death, belief and faith that my life could change. And it did. So there.
My point of this rant is that when people say they’ve tried God, they haven’t really tried Him. They’ve tried living under law and striving to be good in their own strength, they’ve tried compartmentalizing Him and hoping He waves a magic wand to deliver them out of their mess, they’ve tried giving Him a timeline and a list of demands. This isn’t trying God, this is rubbing a bottle and hoping He pops out.
After all, we aren’t simply meant to just “try” God, we were designed for forever fellowship with Him.
Shalom
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