24th October 2004

My favourite TV show was on last week.

It's called The Amazing Race and it's a reality program involving teams of people racing to certain destinations around the world.

As the weeks go by I get quite involved, having my favourites to barrack for.

In this race there is a Christian couple and at one point of conflict between them he said to her,

"...you don't understand that I'm just trusting the Lord."

Now I'm all for trusting the Lord but, at this point, it was obvious that this was a 'cop out'. He was actually using that statement to get his own way (although he may have thought he was relying on God)!

I've thought about this quite a bit during the week and I was reflecting on when Peter was released from goal by the Lord; yes, the Lord went before him and did everything except for those things he could do for himself, like putting on his robe and sandals.

Likewise with us: as we trust the Lord He goes before us, but we are responsible for our actions—what we do and don't do.

We are fearfully and wonderfully made, and God gave us a brain so that we would use it.

We sang last week, "take my intellect and use at the impulse of thy love, take myself and I will be swift and beautiful for thee."

What am I saying? Let us use all the gifts God has given us (including our ability to reason and think). As we ask the Lord to empower us, may we give ourselves wholly to Him with no room for 'cop outs'.

Judy