You Can't Fix This! How to Get Out of God's Way

We are fixers and problem solvers, us girls. When those we care for are hurting or in need we rush in to save the day. Like Macgyver facing a ticking bomb with nothing but a bobby pin and a gummy worm, we improvise under pressure.Am I the only one who has every rushed in to fix something only to make it worse? (Counting on your honesty here.) We can be almost compulsive with our fixing, right? It's just our nature as nurturers to make things better; it almost feels wrong not to fix it.  Unfortunately, I am not Macgyver and I do not always have the knowledge and the skill required to be the hero.God has been gently reminding me recently that he has not asked me to fix every problem in my life or anyone else's life. What a relief, because some of them are huge! Way too big, too complicated, too critical, too impossible for my bobby pin and gummy worm efforts.I also needed to be reminded me that he is the one with the plan, the good plan. He sees it all, how everything fits together when I only see a small part. His heart is pure and his motives are holy when mine may very well be selfish.When it comes to those I love, I may want to fix the very thing that God wants to use to bring healing. My eyes are searching the room for the Easy Button to press, but God may have plans to use the hard thing, the painful thing to do a great and lasting work. Sometimes, he may want to fix it in his own miraculous, "you never would have thought of this beautiful solution in a million years" way to bless his children whom he loves.Just because God has opened our eyes to a need or problem, doesn't mean that he is asking us to fix it. If there is a vacancy, it doesn't mean you should fill it.So what are we to do fix-it friend? Just stand by while the whole world falls apart? Absolutely not! When we are faced with a problem or a need, we should pray first. Not as a last resort when all else fails. Prayer is connecting to God's plan for the problem at hand, and we all know that He has the best plan, the perfect perspective, and the power to bring it to pass.Pray first. The struggle is real. I jump at solutions, I brainstorm lists of solutions.  Then I rush in and get it all done because I want a resolution now. I want things to be better now. I want the pain to go away now. Yet, when I pray I can trust that God's agenda is better than mine.Listen. Out of his unbelievable love for us crazies, God loves for us to join him in what he is doing around us. Ask him what your part should be in his plan. He may ask you to pray like you've never prayed before or he may tell you  to get up and get busy serving. He may just ask you to trust him as he does his thing. (Oh, anything but that!)Obey. Whatever he has asked of you, do it. It may not be what you would have chosen. It might be killing you to wait on the Lord, but wait! He's got this! Put away the bobby pins and gummy worms! Speaking from personal experience, these are the times when we see God come through in amazing ways.

For my thoughts are not your thoughts,    neither are your ways my ways,”declares the Lord. “As the heavens are higher than the earth,    so are my ways higher than your ways    and my thoughts than your thoughts.

Isaiah 55:8-9

For I alone know the plans I have for you, declares the Lord;

plans to prosper you, not to harm you, plans to give you a hope and a future. Jeremiah 29:11