Controversial title right? It's actually the mindset that a lot of us subconsciously take when we go about living our lives. Through living as we want to, and not following the way God has told us to live, we are saying to Him that we want to be our own gods, we want to live our lives as we want, and that we aren't trusting Him that He knows best.
When God tells us to trust Him, that He's in control of a situation and we then go about trying to rectify it ourselves without His help, we are trying to play the role of God; trying to control our own lives and pretend that we have the ability to control other people's lives as well. When God told me to 'just trust me, I've got this', I still tried to continue to work the situation in the way I thought best; although I said that I did trust Him, my actions proved otherwise.
Upon realising this - that I was saying one thing and doing another, trying to be God in the situation - I started dwelling upon what it means to give something up to God. It's one of those pieces of advice I get given pretty much every time I go to a Christian about a problem I have, but what does it actually mean? Does it mean telling God we're giving Him control of the situation and then praying daily for Him to create the outcome that we want? No. It means giving Him control, and praying for the outcome that He wants.
Giving a situation up to God means no longer living it out as we think is best, saying and doing things that we think will help, or trying to tell other people in the situation what they should do. Giving a situation up to God means living it out as He knows is best, leaving it to Him to say and do the things that He knows will help, and leaving it to Him to tell others what they should do. At times this can be incredibly frustrating, sitting there watching a situation play out and doing nothing to try and rectify it. But actually, in doing nothing, we are doing everything; we are allowing God to do the work which He has already planned, and that work is far greater and effective than any of our efforts will ever be.
In those times where I do get frustrated with the lack of progress, or my lack of capability to sort it all out, I find that the best thing to do is go to God. When I want to meddle in something that I've given to God, I get out my Bible, or I put on some worship music, or I pray. I talk to God instead of talking to those in the situation; I tell Him my worries, my fears, my hopes and my desires knowing that He will sit there patiently, absorbing every word. I get stuck into His word, reminding myself of His promises for my life, studying examples of how He worked difficult situations in the Bible. I sing out words of thanks for all that He has done in my life, reminding myself that His great works will continue. But most of all I pray; I pray 'not my will, but yours, be done'.
The greatest comfort I find when giving things to God, is that God is exempt from time. This means that He already knows the end result. We can try and fix things ourselves as much as we want, but we do so without knowing what the finished product is going to be; we hope that what we are doing now will get us where we want to be. But with God, when we let God fix things, we do so knowing that He knows what the finished product will be; we know that what He is doing now will get us to where He wants us to be, and wherever that place may be, it is the best possible place for us. When we remind ourselves of that, we can rest in the knowledge that God has it all under control and we can happily step back from the situation, allowing Him to do the works He already has planned.