Causes Of Heart Wanderings~Self Management

Another cause of heart wanderings is self-management and attempting to take our affairs in our own hands...

Trying to help the Lord in His providences of our case in times of trouble and distress.

We must be led through many a soul crisis. 

These crises will come to us in social life, in business, in church relations, in health, in lines of duty.

Many of them cannot be avoided. 

They are in the very nature of things in this world, and when they come, our human spirits are so eager for the speedy and premature result that they accept of an unlawful deliverance.
 
And we are so tempted to think that God had forgotten us...

Or that He is too slow, that we take affairs into our own hands.

This was the case of Rebekah and Jacob, who thought that they surely must manufacture a lie and deceive Isaac with the goatskin, in order to secure the fulfillment of an infallible promise from God...

But their self-management brought sad separation and years of sorrow.

This was the case with King Saul, who thought that Samuel was so long reaching his appointment that he must play the part of the priest and offer sacrifice...

And from that hour he began wandering from God.

This was the case with Uzza, who thought, when the oxen stumbled, he must surely put forth his hand and assist the Lord in caring for the ark.
 
Meddlesomeness  has led many a soul into spiritual bondage.

It is so easy even for spiritual men to get the impression that they must manage the work of God...

That they are responsible in great revivals for keeping their little fingers on the safety-valves, and curbing divine fire within the limit of their prudence.

Spiritual power is lost in the attempt to manage the kingdom.

Self-management, in some form or other, is the starting point of many a decline in grace.

~G. D. Watson~