Are We Just Trying Too Hard?

By Raquel Soto 

Part 1
I know the plans that I have for you, declares the LORD.  They are plans for peace and not disaster, plans to give you a future filled with hope.  Jeremiah 29:11  I was thinking about the goodness of God one day and just thanking Him for bringing me through the health issues that arose during my last pregnancy and how I was delivered of them right after my son was born this year.  I then began to recall some of His promises and thinking about how some of them have come to pass and some have not.  Did I miss something?  Had I not fasted enough?  Prayed enough?  Interceded enough?  I know that it is never God.  God never misses it.  I know that He is filled with integrity.  He watches over His Word to perform it and exalts His Word even above His name.  I have learned that I can put my complete trust in His Word.

Still…

Here I was, 2009, and I’m almost in the same place I was in 2008.  I have had miracles along the way.  Like, my third child, he was unexpected and miraculously conceived, just like the other two children.  In an economy where raises are frozen and bonuses were virtually non-existent (except if you got a bailout) I received both.  I’ve had an increase in influence on the web.  I’m even in the process of finishing my third book in three years.  Perhaps I want too much.  Expect too much.

Still….

I remembered that when I started to get to really know about the goodness and grace of God that I would lay my hands on the sick and see them recover, practically instantly.  Hmm.  Where have I read that before?  I remembered that when I would pray for a job to come to someone, in an area that had no jobs, and call forth work as a gift from God, that it would come.  I’ve read about that to.

I remembered that when I needed money for this or that either someone would stop on over to give me what I needed or an opportunity for my hands to be put to something, would come along.  Just in time. 

All familiar territory.

But somehow as I’ve grown older I’ve let the adults talk me out of my childish way of just believing what God said.  They  convinced me that “a new level a new devil” and “you were new so God gave you special grace” and other such nonsense.  Like, not to take God too literal.

So what’s the problem?

We’ve made it too hard.

We are not to toil; that’s from the curse.  That’s what the crown of thorns represented – toiling.  And Jesus’ Blood was shed so that we may be restored to our “Eden state” of Genesis 1.  Adam never toiled until after the fall.  He worked, but didn’t toil.  There’s a big difference.  It’s a completely different perspective.  And when we see differently, our circumstances eventually fall in line with what we see.  It is one of the reasons God gave us an imagination.  It’s our commercial for the coming attractions of our life.

And yes, as you mature in Christ you go to a new level, gives you a new devil, but it also increases your protection in Him.   We are seated in heavenly places, above the snake line!  Frankly, we’ve given our adversary too much control over our lives and it needs to stop and stop now.

If Daddy said it, it shall come to pass. And the Holy Spirit is there to guide us into what our part is.  But we don’t have to make it happen, God has already planned it ahead of time.  He is Jehovah Jireh, the God that Provides . He doesn’t say: oops, forgot about that.  He saw it ahead of time and has already placed whatever it is we need, right when we need it, and sometimes, it’s in our hands before we even realize we needed it.  It’s what makes Him “Father of the Year” every year since creation was, well, created!