God is God and I am Not

What’s happening when we endeavor to mend someone else’s problems and then feel anxious that the other person doesn’t comply with our solutions—or isn’t grateful? Perhaps it’s our blurred divine distinctions.

Becoming clear about who God is (hey, we can’t be intimate with someone we don’t allow ourselves to know) and who we are liberates us to enjoy our lives. It releases us from needing to have all the answers; allows others to trust God instead of looking to us for solutions. And frees us to develop satisfying relationships with loved ones, God and ourselves. It’s what we craved all along.

Often as our Creator reveals one of his God-Names (and attributes) in scripture, it is when one of His children is experiencing an imperfect dilemma or human limitation.

For example, the name Jehovah-Jireh (God the Provider) is introduced to Bible readers during an intense father/son story when Abraham is about to sacrifice his only child Isaac and God supplies the substitute animal. God is established as El Roi (the God Who Sees) when culturally insignificant Hagar (Sarah’s and Abraham’s verbally and emotionally abused maid) runs away and God “sees” and reaches out to this broken-hearted young woman.

I could go on, but these two illustrations seem to indicate that God wants us to partner with him and trust his sufficiency in the midst of our humanness and imperfection. God is God and I am not. And by the way, neither are you. Yet we are made in God’s likeness, blessed with capabilities, dignity, and the capacity for healthy relationships with one another and with Him.

Divine distinction (understanding the difference between who God is and who you are) isn’t about what youshould do, but about what you can be, because of Jesus. Good-bye to Hyper-vigilance! Prepare for joy.

Have you ever come face-to-face with the reality that God is God and you are not?  What happened?