Here’s the problem. Most of us don’t want anyone telling us what to do. We also do not need help with what we should do. And please do not tell us what is right and wrong. We want to live life our way, making our own rules. We want to be the God of our lives. And that’s the problem . . . because there is only one God. David wrote, “Know that the Lord, he is God!”1 We think we are God! We are not. When we understand that, we can be assured of this: “It is he who made us.”1 God created us perfectly. We need not wonder if God made a mistake in making us who we are. He makes no mistakes. When we understand that, we can rejoice in this: “We are his.”1 We belong to God. Indeed, “we are his people, and the sheep of his pasture.”1 God is our Father. We are his children. When we understand that, we can have peace about this: “For the Lord is good.”2 God only wants what is best for his children. Jesus said we will be happy if we “hear the word of God and keep it.”3 When we understand that, we can rest in this: “his steadfast love endures forever.”2 No worries. His plan will not change.
But back to the problem. When we act like we are God, we cannot be assured of anything, and we wonder and worry about everything. When we leave God out of our lives, we make huge mistakes and sometimes irreparable mistakes—but not unforgiveable mistakes. The most important revelation we must acknowledge is that there is a God and we are not him! Here’s what scripture says about that: “If you forget the Lord your God and go after other gods and serve them and worship them, I solemnly warn you today that you shall surely perish.”4 That’s the sad truth. But the good news is this: “For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life.”5
The solution to our problem is to realize that God is in charge and then start living for him because “we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them.”6 God is in charge. He has a good plan for our lives. If we let him be God, if we would start acting like his sheep, we could become the people we have dreamed of being. When we discover the specific plan God has for our lives, we will be happy beyond measure and will “serve the Lord with gladness.”7
We have two choices of how to live: serving God or serving ourselves—which is to live in slavery to all our desires. Christ came to free us of that. In fact, “he died for all, that those who live might no longer live for themselves but for him who for their sake died and was raised.”8 When we know that “the Lord, he is God,” we do not have to worry or wonder any more about who is in charge.
1Psalm 100:3 2Psalm 100:5 3Luke 11:28 4Deuteronomy 8:19 5John 3:16 6Ephesians 2:10 7Psalm 100:2 82 Corinthians 5:15