God's Side and Man's Side

CHAPTER TWO

Hannah Whithall Smith pulled out all the illustrative stops in her second chapter of “The Christian’s Secret to a Happy Life” as she explained a foundational truth that the reader must understand in applying the teachings of this book. Our personal faith journey was explained by focusing in on the complimentary relationship needed between God who works and people who must trust that He works. Smith doubled down on how important this is by referring to the common biblical potter and clay relationship, an apple in June compared to one in October, two women with great potential who ended differently, a mother’s contentment to care for a helpless baby more so than a grown child, and finally a carpenter (God) to a hand-saw (us). She enlisted all of these illustrations because this can be a difficult concept to embrace: To advance in relationship with God, He will do all the work and we must be all about trusting Him.

Like most who are reading this blog, I have been conditioned to believe that if I want good things to happen, I need to take the initiative to make good things happen. I need to pull myself up by the proverbial bootstraps (I don’t even know what a bootstrap is). If we want to catch a worm, we need to rise early from bed. If I want grease, I had better squeak. When the going gets tough, I need to get to going along too. We’ve been conditioned to believe that we live in a cause and effect world. But this simply is not true in a personal relationship with the Father.

Mrs. Smith proposes in chapter two that the only way to advance in our relationship with God is to stop trying and start relying. This week pastor Nick shared one of his most memorable quotes from the chapter with me:

In the divine order, God's working depends upon our co-operation. Of our Lord it was declared that at a certain place He did there no mighty work because of their unbelief. (Matthew 13:58.) It was not that He would not, but He could not. I believe we often think of God that He will not, when the real truth is that He cannot. Just as the potter, however skillful, cannot make a beautiful vessel out of a lump of clay that is never put into his hands, so neither can God make out of me a vessel unto His honor, unless I put myself into His hands.

I highlighted the same quote and then went back and read it more than a few times. If we aren’t able to stop trying to work our wills and surrender to the will of God, we will stall out and come up short in experiencing all that He has for us. We will never know the joy of being molded in His hands, ripened to an October apple, experiencing a perfect outcome, maturing to the stature that is found in Christ, and being the instrument God uses to accomplish feats beyond our ability or imagination.

Along with the author I encourage you to surrender all to Him; allowing Him to work in and for you.

THOUGHTS AND QUESTIONS FOR INTERACTION

• What is something in your life that you have struggled to surrender to God’s control?

• Think of what He could do if you put that something into His hands to mold, ripen, perfect, mature, and accomplish amazing feats. Write down a few possibilities of how He could work.

• The Psalmist says, “Be still and know that I am God.” Another way to say that is, “God wants you to stop striving and allow Him to work in you.” Take time to be still before God. Take a half an hour to sit, to kneel, or maybe even walk with Him alone. Talk to Him about the area you’ve held onto. Tell Him you want to surrender it to Him to work on.