PERSONAL TRAGEDIES

Today's reading: Ezekiel 28-30

"You defiled your sanctuaries with your many sins and your dishonest trade. So I brought fire from within you, and it consumed you. I let it burn you to ashes on the ground in the sight of all who were watching." Ezekiel 28:18 NLT

Have you ever had the greatest, probably most godly, of intentions consume you?

Take over your heart and mind and life?

Have you ever started out gun-ho, filled with prayer, led by the Holy Spirit, attune to God's leading--only to take the reins into your own hands when things weren't progressing as you thought they should? Or not producing the outcome you had hoped to see? Or not reaching the masses you had dreamed your idea/ministry would reach?

Was it because of a bad idea? Probably not.

Was it because you were the wrong person for the job? More than likely, no.

Was it that the fire inside you began to burn brighter for success than it did for God? That, dear friend, is a huge probability.

Ezekiel speaks to the same problem.

And Ezekiel speaks to the outcome--a subsequent crash and burn in front of the very audience you were hoping to impress.

So right now, before there is a personal, or public, tragedy, get back on your knees. Recommit to it being God's project, not yours. Determine to see where God is at work and join Him there. Hand it back over to the One who placed the desire in your heart to begin with.

And I'll do the same.