As I prepared to cook out on the grill one day a few years ago, I rolled the gas grill over to begin cooking. But I discovered the tank was empty. That seemed strange, since I didn’t think I had used that much. My first thought was that there was a leak somewhere.
I had an extra tank, so I pulled it over and connected it to the grill. When all the connections were tight, I turned the valve on the top of the grill.
Then I heard a sound which revealed where the problem was: the brass connection which held the hose from the tank into the bottom of the grill had a hairline crack in it. It was there all along, but I could not find it until the pressurized gas flowed through it.
With great love and care, our wise Heavenly Father knows exactly what we need to go through in order to show us where the “cracks” are. Sometimes He allows us to go through great adversity and trial just so we will be able to identify those areas of our lives which are weakest and need most attention.
But not just so we can know where they are. He does it so we can do something about them. Ignoring them certainly won’t help. In times of difficulty, one of our first impulses is to take matters into our own hands. We want to figure it out; we want to resolve the problem. And while it is true that there are times God wants us to get up and work for ourselves, there are also times when He tells us to sit down and be quiet—let Him do the work. There are situations where no matter how hard we try, we only make it worse than it was. God says to us, “Be still. I’m God, and I can fix this.”
Only by confessing our sins and submitting to His Lordship will we see any improvement.
So spend some time reading Proverbs 28:13–then get cookin’!
--Rocky Henriques, www.uticabc.com