On or Off

 Trust in the Lord with all your heart and do not lean on your own understanding... Proverbs 3:5

Jim sat in the open doorway of a plane, one foot inside and one planted firmly on the ground. He grabbed a magazine and smiled at the flight attendant headed toward him. She was not smiling. "Sir, you really must come inside or the pilot cannot take off. We won't get anywhere with you like that." Jim lifted a brow. "It’s OK. I’ll just ride like this. I don't understand aerodynamics very well. This hunk of steel staying in the air seems impossible to me. Plus, I'm not sure the pilot knows how to get where we're going, so I’d rather keep one foot on the ground just in case." The flight attendant wouldn’t budge. "Sir, we won't be flying low enough for you to jump out. Either get all the way on the plane or get off. You can't have it both ways." 

 

Trusting God is like that. Trust means we let go of our right to control a situation. If we want to trust in the Lord, we cannot also lean on our own understanding. Even when we can’t trust a person, we can trust God with the relationship. We don’t always understand God’s ways, and we’re afraid he doesn't know how to get where we want to go. So we keep one foot on our own understanding while pretending to trust Him. We want an escape route in case we don't like where this is going. It won’t work. God is nobody's co-pilot. We are trusting either in Him or in ourselves. We can’t have it both ways.   

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