I trusted Jesus as my Savior in 1972 when I was 16 years old. I trusted Him to save my soul, but I didn't really trust Him to direct my life. That has been a much longer process. For many years through my daily quiet time, the Holy Spirit whispered into my heart the same message, "Do you trust me? I eventually found it easy to trust His guidance in my own life, but I wasn't sure He could do the same for my family--not without my help. It took me years to discover that not only am I not the Holy Spirit's little helper, but that my interference was getting in the way of what He was trying to do. He used people and circumstances I never would have thought of and got way better results. I was especially disappointed that I was not my husband's Holy Spirit because I had so many good ideas about how to change him.
After all, I was practicing on my children. When children are young, parents get to be their Holy Spirit. We apply Biblical principles to their behavior. We convict them of their sins. We administer discipline. We begin to like the role of Holy Spirit, but it is a job that we need to increasingly work ourselves out of. Just as we do when we move from holding our babies, to walking beside our toddlers, to coaching our teens from the sidelines, to blessing and releasing our young adults. It is God who will see them when they're sleeping, know when they're awake, and know if they've been bad or good for the rest of their lives.
I think the reason God doesn't change our loved ones' hearts through our nagging is because, like a parent, he doesn't want to reinforce bad behavior--ours. Do I trust the Holy Spirit to work out God's plan in my life? Absolutely. Do I trust Him to work out God's plan in my children's lives? Certainly. Do I trust Him to work out God plan for them without my words? Well, I need a few more years to work on that one. There's trust. . . and then there's trust.
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