God’s Little Helper
When our daughters were small they wanted to help me mow the yard. I let them hold the inside of the handle of the mower while I held on to the outside. When I stopped pushing the mower, they were able to budge it a bit, but when the mower did move a little, it went way off track. When they got tired of that they went in the house and told mom they mowed the lawn. Of course, we bragged on them to help build their confidence.
When I started into ministry, I too pushed or pulled whatever direction just to get movement when leading the church’s music and youth ministries. And like my girl’s, I would also claim the choir (choirs used to be the major piece of a church music program) as ‘my choir’ and the youth as ‘my youth group’. You know the game because that is how most of us commonly think and talk even though we are adults!
When God created humans, Genesis 1:28 (ESV) “God blessed them. And God said to them, “Be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth and subdue it and have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the heavens and over every living thing that moves on the earth.” The verb “subdue” here refers to God’s mandate for his servants to subdue His created species. It is also used to describe Israel’s taking of the Promised Land, Canaan (Num. 32:22, 29; Josh. 18:1).
I have a hunch that since they “subdued” the Promised Land, they called it their land, not God’s! Judges 3:1-2 adds an intriguing twist to this concept. This passage essentially says God strategically left various nations in the land “to test Israel” and in order “to teach them” the art of warfare. No matter what the people thought or felt was ‘due to their own life-giving efforts’, God was still the King and they were still His subjects. He was simply permitting them to feel like they were doing the hard labor when all along He had all things under control and was empowering them—perhaps similar to what I was doing when I helped my daughters ‘mow the yard’.
God can get very touchy when someone usurps what is His. Moses is a classic example in Numbers 20-11-12 when in the process of obeying God’s direction, projected too much of his humanity into what God and told him to do by drawing the people’s attention to himself. God interpreted it taking the glory for himself and ‘not giving Him the glory’ that is rightfully His. Moses paid dearly for what most would consider no big deal today.
I acknowledge that at times, like Moses, I can get so involved in accomplishing a mission God has put on my heart, or addressing a serious problem, that I too project too much of myself into the matter and fail to do or say things that glorify God. Later I can even go so far as tell others how I addressed the matter instead of pointing out how the Holy Spirit was leading and intervening in the situation. That would be no different than what my daughters did years ago, except they were innocently doing it as a child against their dad and I am doing it as an adult against God! How about you?
Holy Spirit, please forgive and stop me and my friends when we are about to do something so foolish! We don’t intend to usurp your Lordship! Thank you for your patience with us in our process of becoming like you. Teach us more of Your ways so we can live a life that always honors and glorifies you.