Just the other day, I was putting on a pair of gloves – without paying attention and with some difficulty. Wouldn’t you know it! I was trying to maneuver the left glove onto my right hand, leaving the right glove waiting for my left hand. Silly, eh? Needless to say, it wasn’t going well. After a good look, I saw the problem and switched them out. No wonder they didn’t fit! I think there’s a life lesson in this. Namely: how well do your gloves fit?
Time for a fit check . . .
How Well Do Your Gloves Fit?
Like me, have you ever gotten your gloves on backwards? You know – your right hand in the left glove and the left hand in the right glove. It’s uncomfortable and ineffective. If you don’t get switched around, you find yourself discombobulated.
Actually, this describes what happens when people decide their life should go one direction, but God created them to go a better direction. So, why don’t people trust God and submit to Him in life decisions and daily details? Of course, everybody has their reasons. However, maybe those reasons aren’t enough.
Well, at first glance, it seems people trust themselves more than God. Second glance, it’s easy to “mindlessly” go through the strokes of daily responsibilities. Third, a deeper look, it seems people don’t love God with all their heart, soul, mind, strength!
Maybe that’s a good start as we explore how well your gloves fit.
A Fresh Look
You get a fresh look when you put God central in all situations. Quite literally, this changes the landscape. So, let’s take a fresh look.
Start With You
Just like I needed to –
- Pay attention when putting my gloves on.
- Admit I was wrong, when I maneuvered my fingers into the wrong glove.
- Realize my gloves would never fit properly if I didn’t correct what I was doing . . .
. . . we all need to practice these same three things to make good choices – even in mindless tasks.
- Pay attention to what’s going on inside and around you – and to what Scripture says.
- Admit when you’re wrong and stop manipulating things to fit what you want.
- Realize it’ll never fit properly until you (and I) renew full surrender each moment to God.
Often, we get side-tracked. Even when your heart is in the right place, you can misjudge what to think, say, or do in a situation. Just like I mindlessly tried putting on my gloves without paying attention. When we get side-tracked, we need a fresh look at God. So, let’s keep looking.
Fresh Look At God
First Point
God’s power, intelligence, and creativity accomplishes amazing purposes despite people’s responses. He can absorb rejections, obstinance, and disregard just as easily as receiving obedience and faith – and still bring about His purposes, either way. God will always get His work done. Remarkably, He never errs. Never gets behind. Never misses a thing. But there is something much more at stake. What is that? Simply this.
How you respond to God determines your character, your path, your patterns, and your rewards.
Second Point
God knows how to soften and harden hearts. Additionally, you are designed to partner with God in His work – to put your hand in His glove. Be sure to put your hands in the right gloves so you are not left out of the right response. If you keep putting your hand in the other glove, you risk hardening your heart toward God. Is that really what you want? To participate in hardening your heart toward the Lord’s plans and design for your life is a serious thing.
Remarkably, He invites you to partner with Him. So, respond to God’s initiatives to nurture a soft heart in everything that happens.
Third Point
God gives many opportunities to put your hand in the right glove and to keep a soft heart. Faithfully, He even did this with Pharoah. But Pharaoh hardened his heart again and again to God’s ways. He was obstinate. He liked to disobey and do his own thing. So, God gave him over to his choices. Pharaoh developed patterns that left him in the wrong glove.
God let Pharaoh keep his hand in the glove he repeatedly chose. He honored Pharaoh’s free will to choose. However, that also meant – no more chances. “Have it your way.” He let Pharaoh harden his own heart. Also, He let him have his way and follow his pattern of choices. In the end, He used Pharaoh’s choices to set His people free.
God saved His people through a hardened heart. But it could have been through a soft, pliable heart. That Egyptian king could have partnered with God to bless God’s people. Pharaoh could have taken his hand out of the rebel glove and put it in the surrendered glove at any point until the very last. But he refused.
Can you imagine what world history might have been if that Egyptian king had chosen to be more like Daniel or Moses? If he had decided to partner with the one true and living God?
Fourth Point
God always prevails with His holiness and goodness. He is never stumped. He knows the human heart intimately, since He designed and created it. If anything, He is on the extreme side of mercy and grace. God always extends hope because – He is holy and good.
God is the perfect partner for you in every scenario. He is far beyond the minds of people. Matter of fact, such a holy and good God should be Point Person in all things, including details of your life. Maybe you should connect with Him on all your life scenarios. Afterall, He will prevail.
God is your best resource. Hands down! Or shall I say, “Hand in His glove!”
Floppy Gloves
Have you ever had a pair of floppy gloves? They just kind-of hang limply – until you put your hand into them.
That’s exactly what it’s like to live without God filling your life – a floppy life, like a floppy glove. Subsequently, at the moment you step back and ask God to fill your glove with His hands, transformation begins in your inner self. And this change flows into every facet of your living. It’s a miracle. Additionally, it happens each time you invite God’s hand into your life.
There’s a “flip situation” to this. To explore this flip idea, I’m pulling some content from a previous article, “A Regular Person Superhero.” Here we go.
Hand-In-Glove
God completes you. It’s like putting your hand in His glove. His design envelopes you through the simple act of your surrender to Him. Incidentally, in His glove, you find perspective, power, strength, character, renewal, and resilience. A gloved hand is invisible, but it’s presence is very real.
Col. 3:3 says, “For you died, and your life is now hidden with Christ in God.” Your hand in God’s glove is you, tucked inside a protective force-field.
Since there’s nothing God can’t do, with your hand in His glove, there is nothing you can’t do. So, when you surrender your full essence and identity to Christ, you become “super you.” Gloved, “[you] can do all things through Christ who strengthens [you].” (Phil. 4:13)
You become a regular person superhero when you are gloved. Interestingly, when you stay gloved, you fail less.
You can also flip this analogy the other way around.
Think of yourself as an attractive, yet empty glove. You are helpless until a hand slips in. When you invite God’s Spirit to live inside you, His hand slips into your empty glove.
Jesus helps you manage daily issues. Christ in you gives you strength and purpose. On the other hand, without God’s vibrant life inside your glove, you are an empty, shell-of-a-person.
There’s no safer place to put your hand than in God’s glove. At the same time, no other person is worthy to fill your glove than the Lord.
Either way, you were designed to live gloved! And – that’s how a regular person makes an influential mark on their family, friends, church, community, and the world. So, make sure your gloves fit. And get your hands in the right gloves.
Application Thoughts And Questions
What kind of gloves are your hands wiggling into?- Have you put your hand in God’s glove and let Him transform your life?
- Do you welcome God’s hand in your life glove each day to shape and empower you?
- What regular, daily choices prove you’re putting your gloves on correctly?
- God wants to help you make healthy choices and leave your best mark on this world. However, it’s your move. He won’t take away your free will. So, make good decisions.
- Get your hands in the right gloves. Don’t be left out of God’s blessing. Be right, not left.
* Portions of this content came from our book – It’s Your Move – a devotional book that takes you through Romans and powerfully challenges you to live with perspective and purpose. You can find this book in our bookstore: www.aliveandactivelife.org/store.
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