It's surgery time!

Have you ever had a surgery or know someone who had? A friend of mine had surgery in which he did not have to receive general anesthesia, but only what it is called conscious sedation. He was somewhat awake, but nicely medicated that he can't remember his surgery. When he found out he wasn't going to have general anesthesia, always with a great sense of humor, my friend asked the surgeon if he could assist him with the surgery. In his wisdom the surgeon declined the offer and did the surgery himself without my friend's help. I laughed at this experience, but then started thinking. It's amazing the things we can learn from the daily experiences of our lives.

Imagine you have a large cancerous tumor. You know you need help so you go see a doctor who explains that the only way for you to live is to remove the tumor surgically. The doctor tells you what the tumor is doing to your body which you know well because you can already feel its effects on your health. You desperately want that tumor out! You know that's the only way for you to live, but you are afraid. What if scenarios start playing in your mind, but the weight of the tumor encourages you to trust the surgeon and you schedule the procedure. Naturally, unlike my always joking friend, you know that there's really nothing you can do to help the surgeon. In fact, you being awake during surgery trying to help will most certainly make the process a lot more difficult if not completely impossible. In order for the surgery to go well you need to receive general anesthesia.
The amazing thing about removing a cancerous tumor from your body is that truly there's nothing you can do but lay still and wait until the surgeon is done. Carefully the surgeon removes not only the tumor, but anything else that has been affected by the cancer until you are completely clean and cancer free. And what was your part to get the cancer removed? Completely trust the surgeon and sleep through the whole process. That's the only way the doctor can do the work that needs to be done.

What a great object lesson! We all have a cancerous tumor growing in us. It's called sin. We know it needs to be removed as we can feel its effects in our lives. It weighs us down! We know we can't really do much ourselves so we seek help from Christ who says the only way to get sin removed from us is to trust Him and to let him remove it. Yet how often do we offer to help God remove sin from us? We keep saying we don't need general anesthesia and try to assist God in removing the sin. If we know this is not efficient from a human perspective when going through surgery, why do we think we should help God when removing sin from us? It is the same thing. Helping Him only makes things more difficult if not completely impossible!

The only way for sin to be removed from your live is to completely trust God and allow Him to work in your life the way He knows best. Have you noticed how the Bible so often tells us to be still and to wait on the Lord? God knew we would try to get in the way of His work in our lives, trying to do things our way, the way we think it's best, so He had to remind us that what we truly need to do is to get out of the way. God says He is the Potter and we are the clay (Isaiah 64:8). Just like the clay can do nothing but allow itself to the molded according to the potter's will, so we are to just rest that God's will for our lives is the best. Today learn to be still and to completely trust the work of God in your life. Rest in the assurance that He does a much better job than you and will completely remove sin from your life if you stop trying to help. All you have to do is to be still and know that He is God!

 

“Be still, and know that I am God."

Psalm 46:10

"Wait patiently for the LORD. Be brave and courageous. Yes, wait patiently for the LORD."

Psalm 27:14

"But they that wait upon the Lord shall renew their strength; they shall mount up with wings as eagles; they shall run, and not be weary; and they shall walk, and not faint."

Isaiah 40:31