To quote the inspired words of Forrest Gump is to call to mind the simple fact that often we are the cause of our own troubles. “Our own worst enemy,” as my father used to say. How this happens is often a process. A process of thought or, to be more specific, wrong thought. Several verses of Scripture can point us to the genesis of that wrong thinking.
The book of Judges recalls a time when, “Each man did what was right in his own eyes,” yet Proverbs 21:2 reminds us, “Every way of a man is right in his own eyes, but the Lord ponders the heart.”
In the New Testament Matthew reminds us, “Don’t worry about tomorrow for tomorrow has enough troubles of its own.”
And John reminds us that Jesus himself promised, “In this life you will have trouble.” Fortunately for us, God does not leave us there. Rather, Jesus goes on to say, “But take heart! I have overcome the world.”
So we might paraphrase Forrest Gump by saying, “Trouble is as trouble does.” In other words we often are the cause of our own troubles. How does this happen?
It can happen when we assume that we know what’s best. We proceed doing what is right “in our own eyes.” We assume that our agenda is God’s agenda. Then when things don’t go as planned we mistakenly assume that it is someone else that’s out of step with God. This then becomes a heart problem. This happens so easily that we barely notice. Nor do we consider that God’s agenda will never be thwarted. Therefore, if things are not going as we planned, or had hoped, it is perhaps us that have gotten out of step with God.
Always ask, “Is this my idea, or is it God’s idea?” And always remember that if things are not going as planned, it was probably not God’s plan to begin with. There is a Hebrew saying, “Man plans, God laughs.”
God did not just make me perfect in Christ, he made that difficult, disagreeable person next to me perfect as well.
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