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There is an old hymn that says,
“Precious Lord, take my hand;
lead me on, let me stand.” That
is precisely what the Lord wants
to do! He wants to take our hand
and lead us. His desire for us
is that we walk with Him, hold
His hand and follow where He
leads.
The Spanish have a saying that
was even included in a song
(? by Marty Robbins ?): “Vaya con Dios.” It is my understanding
that it means “Go with God.”
Sometimes when folks are parting
and going separate ways, they
will say, “May God go with you.”
I really like the Spanish version best. “Go with God.” That implies
that I will follow God where He
leads me. Our English version
implies that I am going and I
hope God goes with me.
It is risky to create our own
agenda, present it to God with
the
request, “God bless my
intentions and efforts toward
fulfilling them.”
The ideal and safe choice is to
allow God to present us with His
agenda which is already blessed,
anointed and outlined for our
good.
We build our agendas based on
priorities that we have
knowledge of which is limited.
God’s agenda is based on His
perfect knowledge reaching into
eternity.
To accept God’s agenda, follow
Him as He leads means that we
will have to give Him our open
hand. It is hard to hold on to a
hand
that is closed in a fist. A fisted-hand can neither give nor receive.
We should look at the hand we
are offering to God—Is it an
open
hand or a fist? If it’s a fist, will God have to peel our fingers
open in order to “lead us on?”
We need to examine closely what
we are holding on to so tightly
that we cannot release it to
God’s hand that is out stretched
to ours. Whatever we are holding
in our fist comes between God
and us.
Is my fist holding on to my
will? My agenda? Do I have life
“mapped-out” and my plans all
laid out in my blueprint? Can I
open my fist and surrender my
will so that I can follow God’s
plans?
Jesus prayed an agonizing prayer
in the Garden of Gethsemane,
“Father, not my will, but Thine
be done.” We will never have to
face giving our life for the
sins of the world! but God will
never ask
anything of us that we are not
capable of doing in His
strength.
Let us go with God’s agenda and
make ours accordingly.
Maybe we have habits in our
lives that we are holding in our
fist.
Some habits are good. We need to
be in the habit of taking a bath
and brushing our teeth. We do
many things out of habit without
giving them a thought. It’s a very good habit to have devotions,
maintain a healthy lifestyle,
etc.; but doubtless, we have
other
habits that are performed just
as unconsciously which are not
good.
We probably would not even need anyone to list them for us.
We know. Any habit that is
detrimental to us physically,
emotionally or spiritually is
bad and God want us to release
them with our fist opened.
Some people have a serious
problem with releasing their
resources.
They are clutched tightly in a
fist. We are only stewards of
God’s warehouse. He gives us
twenty-four hours every day, and
He
expects us to reserve adequate,
quality time for Him
to enrich our lives.
He owns the “cattle on a
thousand hills,” and puts His
resources
at our disposal. He expects us to use them wisely, giving Him
priority. This includes cash or its equivalent, time, talent and
anything else He has deposited to our account. We can joyfully
release our resources from our
fist if we keep in mind that
what we
do for others is the same as doing it for Him. (Matthew 25:40).
What about our enemies? Are we
holding them in our fist,
rehashing every detail of how
they wronged us? We hold them
in a tight fist by not forgiving
them, by not blessing those who
curse and persecute us. Isn’t it
strange that we would hold onto
a serpent and allow it to continually bite us until enough venom
is injected to cause our death?
Jesus wants us to release the
snake of hate, resentment and
unforgiveness so He can heal
us of the poisonous, destructive
results.
What can we do with an open
fist? First of all, it makes it
easier
to keep it clutched by the Savior’s hand. We can then use it to
reach out and shake another’s
hand or give a hug. We can give
of our resources as God directs.
We can receive what God puts
in our open hand as we share
with one another. We can neither
give nor receive until we have
opened our fist.
It’s OK to admit that you can’t
do it alone. God already knows
that. All He asks is that you give that tightly closed fist to Him
with a willingness to have it
opened. Once it has been
sincerely surrendered to Him, He
will be ever so gentle as He
brings
flexibility to the stiffened fist creating an open hand to
give and receive blessings.
Jesus met a rich man who held
treasure in a tight fist that he
had accumulated by cheating his own people. Jesus invited
Himself to the home of Zacchaeus;
and after spending time
with Jesus, Zacchaeus began to
open his fist. Spending time
with Jesus is a life-changing experience! By the time their
visit had ended, Zacchaeus was
stretching out his hand to
restore ”fourfold” all that he
had taken fraudulently as a tax
collector.
He didn’t stop there; he told Jesus he wanted to use half of his
accumulated resources to
alleviate the plight of the
poor.
Friendship with a giver
influences us to imitate their
behavior.
When we spend time with the Master-giver, our fist will begin
to relax, creating a receptacle to receive and then to give out of our
resources. The process Jesus
uses to accomplish this is to
begin by softening our hearts.
We are overwhelmed by His
generosity as
He opens our heart, then our
hand. A tender heart has an open
hand.
Give God your fist! He’ll show
you His heart and give you His
hand!
Delores Adams
6/6/2003
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