Beware the Schemes of Man!

When I am praying for people, especially those who have suffered many things in their lives, I have in my mind a definition of Christian healing that God gave me many years ago at the outset of the work of Ellel Ministries – the restoration of God’s order in a person’s life. So I sometimes start by asking people the obvious questions about possible roots of disorder in their own lives and the lives of their parents and those whose influence and control they have been under down the years.

Often, however, I discover that some people are only looking for the healing of their present symptoms, and are not really interested in asking God what those roots of disorder actually are. As our Scripture implies, disorder is the fruit of mankind wanting to go after the many schemes that both men and women dream up for themselves – usually with a little help from the schemes of the devil that Paul warned us about in Ephesians Chapter 6! God created mankind upright, but following the schemes of man has resulted in a lack of uprightness. And none of us can escape the reality expressed by Paul in Galatians 6:5 that there is a law of sowing and reaping which applies to our lives as well as our crops.

It is a sad fact that, in the stories of the Kings of Israel, the Bible tells us that many of their problems were caused by things like a lack of uprightness in their lives or because they were not wholehearted in following the Lord. As I read this Scripture afresh I felt God challenging me to examine my own heart and ask Him to show me any areas of my life where the schemes of man have got in the way of the plans of God. May I encourage you to do the same and trust God as you seek His best for every area of your life.

Prayer: Lord, help me to see myself as You see me. Help me to see those places where there has been a lack of uprightness in the things I have done. I want to put things right with You and anyone else who has been affected by my decisions and actions. In Jesus’s Name, Amen.