The Simplicity of the Word

“God cares for you, so turn all your worries over to Him” 1 Peter 5:7.

It’s simple right? If you start to worry, turn the worries to Him. It is as simple as that. I equate it to this, I’ve just gone shopping and I’m carrying in heavy bags, I see my husband sitting on the couch and he asks if I need help, I say no because I want to prove that I can do it on my own. So, I struggled into the house heaving and sweating all because I did not ask for help. That was the “me of the past” when we first got married. The “me of now”, before I even stop the car in the garage, I have already called him to come help me pick up my bags from the car. I have learned over time to hand it over to someone who is stronger than I am.

Simplicity. This is a simple word, but it carries a lot of weight. We tend to hold on to our lives, our issues, our fears, our sufferings in the hope that we can solve it ourselves. Why? We have Someone who says turn it over to me because I care for you. He is literally asking you to give everything to him, but we want to keep it for ourselves. We complain that God doesn’t hear us or help us or want to help us as we see from last week's Blog post

When God issues a promise, He means it. It is the purest form of truth. He wants to help us, He wants us to live a life of abundance, favor, riches, no fear, and love. Is it because we do not trust Him that we do not think His promises are simple? Look at Deuteronomy 28. The whole chapter talks about how God will bless you if you obey Him. My all-time favorite scripture is in that chapter, verse 12:

“The Lord will open the storehouses of the skies where he keeps the rain, and he will send rain on your right at just the right times. He will make you successful in everything you do. You will have plenty of money to lend to other nations, but you won’t need to borrow any yourself.”

Another simple scripture. If you obey you will be successful in everything you do.

I have realized that the simplest of instructions is what I struggle with. My issue is that I want to control the easy (my version of easy), a portion of my life and give God the portion I deem to be hard. In my head this is a merger of abilities. I keep learning that I have zero control over anything, least of all waking up in the morning. So why do I not listen and obey the simplest of all instructions?

As I watch my little ones grow each day, I realize it is something we are born with. The will to want to be independent, to do things on our own. In our lives we rely on our own abilities to do things and achieve a status all the while forgetting who keeps us alive to achieve these feats. The older one as soon as the front door opens, she takes off running like we are keeping her hostage in the house without any bread or water. I always run after her and try to hold her hand, but she runs even faster away from me. On the rare occasion when I hold her hand while walking, she shrugs it off and wants to walk on her own.

This reminds me of how I shrug off God's help when I know I need it. I act as if I can handle the situation all the time. It's only when I realize that the situation is way past my abilities do I come tail behind my legs asking for help. After God helps me, I always wonder to myself why didn’t I just give it to him in the first place? He asked me to do that so why can’t I follow simple instructions? If you know the answer to this question please help a sister out because she needs to remember that the scriptures are always easy to follow, it's our human mind that makes it hard.