I do it! I do it!

"I prayed to the Lord, and he answered me. He freed me from all my fears.  Those who look to Him for help will be radiant with joy; no shadow of shame will darken their faces." Psalm 34: 4-5 NLT
"I do it! I do it!" That is what my daughter Anika used to say to me when she was two years old. Anika had new found independence and she was going to exercise it.  It didn't matter if she got it right, it didn't matter if whatever she was doing took forever, she was determined to do it herself.
As I sit here and write this I realize that she comes by her independence honestly.  I am just like her in my relationship with God at times.  I find that I am constantly saying to God, "I do it!"  I seem to forget that He is God, that He has a birds eye view of my entire life, and maybe just maybe He knows better!
In my prayers as of late I had begun to notice a trend. Instead of asking God to intervene or take care of me, I had been asking God to help me fix the situation(s).  The classic "help me help you".  Why would I do that?  It is the same as Anika asking me to get her a stool to reach something above her, instead of simply asking me to get it for her.

And then I went to church....
The sermon was on Mary and Joseph - as is expected during this time of year.  What I didn't anticipate was the conclusion that I came to regarding Mary and Joseph.  They were ordinary people.  They weren't part of the Jewish nobility, they were average people like me.  God used ordinary people to be His vessel in accomplishing the extraordinary.  How just like God.
Throughout the bible, God has used people you wouldn't expect to accomplish amazing things.
I've been getting frustrated because God didn't do what I asked and let me provide for my family.  Instead, God chose to step into my life in a tangible way and in the process bless me and provide for me on a scale far greater than I even imagined.

I realized that I have a very limited view of God.  I assume that He must want me to fix whatever happens in my life.  I missed it all together.  God doesn't want me to be independent of him.  He wants me to come to Him for everything and in doing so realize that He is God and will answer in his time and in his way.  Sometimes His way may be to give me the tools to work within a situation and sometimes his way is to handle it for me altogether.  The goal then for me is to recognize God's authority in my life and stop saying, "I do it!"