I was spoiled as a child. I wanted and learned how to get things my way, mostly by whining and crying. I learned how to manipulate things and people to get the cookies, the (well, mainly cookies) I wanted.
It’s interesting because my aunt didn’t spoil her kids. She used to take care of me while my mom was at work. I remember, one day, I asked for cookies. I took six of them. They could barely fit in my hand. She made me put three back. I hardly wanted to say “Bye” to her when my mom picked me up. She told my mom, “She mad because I wouldn’t let her have all those cookies.” They both chuckled. I didn’t. My aunt taught me the lesson of “No,” but at home I got what I wanted.
So, when things didn’t go my way as an adult, what was my reaction? To stop believing that God would give me what I wanted, to give up hope and put faith in the fact that I was going to get what I wanted, anyway. Talk about a spoiled adult. Temper tantrums on adults look different, but we can still have them.
I refused to listen to God because I forgot about the pact that I’d made with my friend. I kept up my end. She didn’t. And good for her because it wasn’t smart to decided not to expect good things from the Good God. That’s what being hopeless means, we don’t believe that God has anything good for us, so we try to get it ourselves. I tried. It doesn’t work.
The best thing we can do is submit to God. James 4:7 tells us to submit ourselves to God, resist the devil and he will will flee from us. When we submit to God, the devil can’t cause us to sin. When Jesus went into the wilderness, He fasted and prayed for 40 days and 40 nights. By the time He was done, the devil tried to tempt Him with bread, first, then with riches and power and suicide. None of them worked because Jesus’ hope wasn’t in those things but in His Father who sent Him on Earth to do a specific assignment. Jesus was able to resist the devil because of His submission to God, because of the hope He had in the Creator of Heaven and Earth that He would never leave Him nor forsake Him.
Our hope isn’t for us to think that we won’t be able to do what we want if we give ALL of our power to Jesus. Jesus has ALL power in His hands, already. He really doesn’t need us, but He wants us, and that’s a thing, Y’all! Having hope is freeing. It brings joy. It brings love. It brings purpose into our hearts from the God above, and when we have that type of hope, we can do things we never could have dreamed. Let God be your dream giver. He’ll far exceed yours.
Thanks for reading!
