The root of our problems is not our parents, or our spouses, or our bosses, or our leaders, or our circumstances. The root of our problems is not anyone or anything that we might blame for our problems as we try to shift the blame away from personal responsibility for the conditions of our lives.
The root of our problems is our own wrong response to God’s signals in life.
There are some problems over which we may have little or no control. We may not have any choice to prevent those situations. We may experience accidents, tragedies, persecutions, setbacks, and conflicts over which we have little or no control at all. We may not be able to do much about these circumstances at times, but we can always choose our response.
Some problems are thrust upon us, but the vast majority of problems that affect the quality of our lives have their roots in wrong responses to God’s signals in life.
God has the absolute best plans for our lives. If we will faithfully follow his path and live our lives according to His will and His guidance, we will experience lives filled with deep satisfaction, contentment, health, peace of mind, meaning and purpose.
To enable us to follow His path and to do what is best for us, God gives us His grace. Grace is the motivation, the power, and the ability to respond correctly to God’s signals and to do God’s will in every area of life.
God gives His grace to all of us. We all start out with this advantage.
“But unto every one of us is given grace according to the measure of the gift of Christ.”—Ephesians 4:7 (KJV)
“That is the way we should live, because God’s grace has come. That grace can save every person.”—Titus 2:11 (ICB)
“For out of His fullness (abundance) we have all received [all had a share and we were all supplied with] one grace after another and spiritual blessing upon spiritual blessing and even favor upon favor and gift [heaped] upon gift.”—John 1:16 (AMPC)
As long as we cooperate with the grace God that gives us so that we respond correctly to God’s signals, things go well for us.
“The people were told they could leave the service. Many Jews followed Paul and Barnabas. Many Gentiles who faithfully worshiped the God of the Jews did the same. Paul and Barnabas talked with them. They tried to get them to keep living in God’s grace.”— Acts 13:43 (NIRV)
“I am crucified with Christ: nevertheless I live; yet not I, but Christ liveth in me: and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by the faith of the Son of God, who loved me, and gave himself for me. I do not frustrate the grace of God”—Galatians 2:20-21 (KJV)
“Working together with Him, we strongly urge you not to receive God’s grace in vain [by turning away from sound doctrine and His merciful kindness].”—2 Corinthians 6:1 (AMP)
Our problems begin when we resist the grace of God that is directing us to do His will, and we choose to go our own way instead, thinking that we have a better idea.
“Exercise foresight and be on the watch to look [after one another], to see that no one falls back from and fails to secure God’s grace”—Hebrews 12:15 (AMPC)
God is always on our side. He loves us more than we will ever understand! He always wants what is best for us, even more than we want it for ourselves, and so when we resist the grace that God gives us to do what is best for us, it grieves the Holy Spirit of God, who gives this grace to us.
“And do not grieve the Holy Spirit of God [do not offend or vex or sadden Him], by Whom you were sealed (marked, branded as God’s own, secured) for the day of redemption (of final deliverance through Christ from evil and the consequences of sin).”—Ephesians 4:30 (AMPC)
“How much worse (sterner and heavier) punishment do you suppose he will be judged to deserve who has spurned and [thus] trampled underfoot the Son of God, and who has considered the covenant blood by which he was consecrated common and unhallowed, thus profaning it and insulting and outraging the [Holy] Spirit [Who imparts] grace (the unmerited favor and blessing of God)?”—Hebrews 10:29 (AMPC)
“Do not quench [subdue, or be unresponsive to the working and guidance of] the [Holy] Spirit.”—1 Thessalonians 5:19 (AMP)
We always get ourselves into trouble when we think we know better than God what is best for us.
The first one to break from God’s best for his life was Lucifer. He thought he had a better plan for his life than God did. In his mind, he envisioned his own great future apart from God’s will. Instead of God’s will, Lucifer chose his own will. It led him inevitably to his own destruction.
“How you are fallen from heaven, O Lucifer, son of the morning! How you are cut down to the ground, You who weakened the nations! For you have said in your heart: ‘I will ascend into heaven, I will exalt my throne above the stars of God; I will also sit on the mount of the congregation On the farthest sides of the north; **I will **ascend above the heights of the clouds, I will be like the Most High.’” —Isaiah 14:12-14 (NKJV)
After Lucifer’s destructive choice to reject God’s way and to go his own way, he began to persuade others to make the same destructive choices in their lives.
The paradise in which Adam and Eve lived was brought to an end when the serpent in the Garden of Eden persuaded Eve that God was holding out on them. He lied to Eve very subtly, persuading her to question God’s goodness, and for the first time, to believe that there might be something good in life that was outside of the protective boundaries and guidance that God had given them.
That was the beginning of the end for Eve, for Adam, and for all of us. If Jesus had not come and sacrificed His own life to restore our relationships with God, we would all be lost forever.
It will only bring destruction into our lives to begin to question God’s goodness and begin to think that there might be something good apart from God.
God’s love for us is total! He created us. He knows what is best for us, and He only has our very best interests in mind in everything He says and does.
Our best approach to life, if we want to enjoy the best possible quality of life, is to learn to recognize God’s signals in life, and to respond appropriately to His signals.
