Why are you fighting God?

This psalm addresses the futility of making plans either against God or making plans that leave Him out. It is addressed first to rulers and kings but can very easily be applied to anyone in any kind of leadership position; including the leading of your family. If your plans do not include God or are contrary to His will, then according to this psalm they are futile and a waste of time.

It is interesting that this psalm begins with the question, ‘Why do the nations rage?’ Based on the rest of the psalm, the question is why the rulers of this world are fighting against God. In this question is one of the greatest challenges we all face in our relationship with God. Our problem is that we don’t want God to be in charge of every area of our lives. Almost everyone has an issue with the fact that God is God of everything. Our flesh resists this truth with great force. And the greater our position of leadership in the world around us, the more forceful is our flesh at resisting God’s leadership.

While most people would never utter these words, our problem is that we don’t want God to be God in all areas of our life; in fact, there are areas of our life where we feel we should be God. We believe that there are parts of our life that would be better if we are in charge, rather than God. And this battle rages within the heart of every man or woman alive. As we grow in our faith we learn to yield more and more of ourselves over to God’s control. But in those areas you have not yielded, you are still trying to be God.

It is the second question of our verse that should cause us to pause and consider: ‘Why do they waste their time with futile plans?’ The psalmist is saying that if we try to be God, and resist God’s control over our lives, then our plans are going to be futile and we are wasting time making them. I don’t know about you, but I dislike getting to the end of something that I think is important, only to realize that I had wasted my time. But that is exactly what we are doing when we don’t yield to God and allow Him to help us to develop our plans.

God is God! God is in control! The sooner we accept this fact and yield to His sovereign control the better. God’s will is always the best way to do things. We may not always like that fact or even understand what it means completely. We might even disagree with God’s plan, but His will is always the best way. The key is yielding to his will. There is a great peace that comes when we stop raging against the flow of God’s will and allow the current of His grace to carry us where He wants us to go.

As we lead our families, ministries, churches, or whatever, let us lead them along the path that God would have them and us to go. Practice yielding to His will in all things. Encourage and teach others to yield to His perfect will. And then go ahead and make plans. Just keep God right in the center of them. Jesus, help us to yield our whole lives to You.

Read: 2 Kings 23:31-25:30; Acts 22:17-23:10; Psalm 2:1-12; Proverbs 18:13