Get Out of Your Own Way

Romans 4:13-25
Sunday, 8 June 2008

I have been trying to play golf for about two years. I knew I was hooked the first time I went to the driving range, but I also figured out that because so much of golf is counterintuitive, I needed lessons. So I took lessons. Now the problem is that when I am actually out on the course, I have to avoid being so focused on thinking about golf that I can't actually play it. I have to trust that my muscles will remember what I have practiced. I have to learn to get out of my own way.

Abraham is known as the father of the faithful for a reason. Every success in his life required extraordinary faith because every promise God made him was a promise against all odds. If Abraham had considered his own circumstances, if he had focused on his own body, then he would have wavered in is faith. Rather than focusing on himself, though, he paid attention to the promise of God. Paul expresses it this way, in one of my favorite passages of scripture, "No distrust made him waver concerning the promise of God, but he grew strong in his faith as he gave glory to God, being fully convinced that God was able to do what he had promised." In a word, by centering his attention on God and God's ability, Abraham got out of his own way and into God's plan.

We all have the ability to take ourselves too seriously. We zero in on our own gifts and limitations, our own possibilities and liabilities, and in so doing we actually trip ourselves up. The time has come for us to practice and train ourselves simply to trust God. Thus we can open ourselves up to the miraculous promises of God's working in our lives.

Sing, "Standing on the Promises"

Let us pray:
Loving God, create in us hearts and minds that trust your ability even in the midst of our disability. Allow us to move out of our own way so that you can have your way. We pray, in Jesus' name. Amen