Who Put Their Trust In Him

On the last job contract, I made an oops. A several­thousand­dollar oops, not in favor of my client. Not good.

On the current job contract, I made another oops. A many­thousand­dollar oops, in favor of my client. I was quite embarrassed to realize after the contract had been agreed on that I had misread the scale (don’t 20’ and 40’ look alike to you?).

The intricacies and details are quite beyond the scope of this discussion, but I do believe—now, if not previously—that there is such a thing as a "divine oops," and this was definitely one of them. ‘Man’s mind plans his way, but God directs His steps.’

We always plan to be perfect. As an estimator, for instance, I plan to estimate the job perfectly and to come up with exactly the right quantities and dollar amounts. The problem is that we don’t do our jobs perfectly, all our plans notwithstanding.

As it is, my two oops have turned out better than two perfect estimates would have. God could have allowed me to create two perfect estimates, but if He had, I would not have had this lovely experience of seeing God’s absolutely amazing grace. Once again, the Lord has put on a show that is well worth watching. And once again He is removing a burden from my shoulders.

I DON’T HAVE TO BE PERFECT!

And you don’t have to be perfect, either.

If you take a look through the Bible, you’ll see that the "rule" for having God’s help is asking, expectantly waiting, receiving, and being thankful. Sometimes we find other conditions, though. These conditions almost always have to do with not going to someone or something else for help.

I don’t know what we think “idols” are, but they were not simply something that people performed silly ceremonies with. We often think of them as things that were “worshipped.” Perhaps God’s commands would make more sense, however, if we recognized that idols were things that people went to for help. A god of fertility, for instance, was not just something someone kissed or offered sacrifices to. The god of fertility was depended on to give children. And so it was with gods of war or harvest or anything else.

When the Lord told people to destroy their idols, then, I don’t believe He cared so much that the people were bowing down to these things—He cared that they were expecting these things to help them. Because God’s one requirement is glory, He could not help people who were expecting something or someone else to help them.

If God does not appear to be helping you, it is not because you aren’t good enough. Being good is never a condition for getting help—which is good, since it is usually our oops that put us in a position to need help.

Take a look at what you are expecting to help you.

God helps those who put all of their expectations on Him.

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