Higher Than Your Thougts

Trust in the Lord and lean not on your own understanding.

Proverbs 3:5

Once again, this morning, I found myself flirting with disaster.  I was scheming and planning something that I knew wasn't in God's will.  I shut it down as soon as I recognized it was wrong.  God wouldn't let me go back to sleep so I went to my quiet spot and started my devotions.

"My thoughts are nothing like your thoughts," says the Lord.  "And my ways are far beyond anything you could imagine.  For just as the heavens are higher than the earth, so my ways are higher than your ways and my thoughts higher than your thoughts."

Issaiah 55:8-9

Thank you God for directing me!  Thank you for this confirmation on a morning when I could have easily chosen my way of handling a situation.  I hate to think of the problems my way could have caused and I am renewed with trust that You're ways are the best!

How often do we make plans to manipulate a situation as we are trying to "fix" a problem in our life?  Through this scripture God is clearly telling us to stop.  He his saying the things on our human minds will come up with nothing compared to His plans.  His ways far exceed what our minds can comprehend and imagine.  

Take, for example, a story in 2 Kings 7.  The City of Samaria was  trapped within its walls because the Aramean Army was camped outside waiting to attack anyone who exited.  The whole city was experiencing a horrible famine.  It was so bad that mothers were eating their children!  People were desperate and the king of the city was blaming God.  He sent his officer to kill the prophet Elisha.  Elisha met him at the door and proclaimed that by the next morning the marketplace would be overflowing.  Of course the officer was in disbelief and he shouted, "That couldn't happen if the Lord opened the windows of heaven."

Now think about this scenario.....The city was completely out of food and resources.  They were so desperate that they turned to cannibalism.  How on earth would they find food overnight, and in abundance to be overflowing from their wagons and markets?

Smart scholars could have put their heads together and made a plan to save the city.  The king could have sent an army out to fight for food and supplies.  Individuals could have come up with ideas similar to the mothers who were eating their children but none of them would have worked.  They needed creativity and miracles.  They needed something that only God could provide.

One morning two lepers decided to head out of the city looking for food.  They realized that if they stayed they would die so they took their chance with the army.  When they approached the Aramean camp they found a miracle.  The entire army was gone leaving behind everything.....clothes, animals, gold, food.....Yes there were enough supplies to feed all of Samaria and have plenty left over.  How in the world did that happen?

Here was God's plan to save Samaria: 

For the Lord had caused the whole army of Aram to hear the clatter of speeding chariots and galloping of horses and sounds of a great army approaching.  "The king of Israel has hired the Hittites and Egyptians to attack us!" they cried out.  So they panicked and fled into the night, abandoning their tents, horses, donkeys, and everything else, and they fled for their lives.

2 Kings 7:6

Father God, You are absolutely amazing!  Thank you for the stories in the bible that teach us Your magnificence, and power.  Remind us of this story the next time we want to manipulate a situation, make our own plans, or when we get impatient waiting on you.  Your way is the most efficient and successful way we could choose!  Please don't ever let us make any decisions without first consulting you!  

Dig into your bible and find more stories of God's wonderful ways of helping people out of their distress.  Please share with us!!