LifeLink Devotions for Wednesday, June 11, 2025

When I’m on vacation I look for God to teach me something that I need to grow in my spiritual walk with Jesus. It’s in those times of relaxation that the Spirit uses His Word to connect with us.

One morning after such a trip I was hit by a truth. I realized that even when I’m “doing my own thing” it’s not really my own thing – it’s all a part of His life in me. God is teaching me to trust Him completely and not be self-sufficient in any way.

Let’s look back at our lives for a moment. Try and recall those times in your life when things didn’t turn out the way you wanted them to. Think about the situations you were in where you found yourself crying out for things to be different. Think about the frustration and anger you felt when you thought the people you love the most were the ones hurting you the worst. I hope your list isn’t as long as mine.

Now, in those situations, how many times did you take matters into your own hands and try to resolve the issue?

Self sufficiency.

That’s what God said was true of the people of Israel in the days of Isaiah.

Isaiah 9:8-10“The Lord has sent a message against Jacob; it will fall on Israel. All the people will know it -Ephraim and the inhabitants of Samaria—who say with pride and arrogance of heart, “The bricks have fallen down, but we will rebuild with dressed stone; the fig trees have been felled, but we will replace them with cedars.”

God sent them distress to get their attention and alert them to their spiritual need. Their response? Self-sufficiency. They experienced tragedy. They saw the devastating results. They responded with their own plans to rebuild better than before. After the pain of the loss had receded, their first thought was how they could improve and expand their own material world. God wanted them to turn to Him. Instead they turned to their own ambitions.

Self-sufficiency.

Let it not be true of us. Let us not turn the love of God expressed in the discipline of his children into an opportunity for personal gain. Let us wait on the Lord and renew our strength. Let us trust His outcomes rather than manipulating them according to our own desires. Let us walk by faith and not by sight, knowing that all things work together for good to those who love God and are called according to His purpose and not their own.

Pastor John