Yesterday, I read a passage from Oswald Chambers, November 15th entry in "My Utmost for His Highest"*. In it, Chambers discusses how he moved from playing God to letting God play God. I've also gone through a similar process, even though I still fall into its trap from time to time. The Chambers entry is so good that I simply decided to copy and paste it below. I've taken it from http://www.myutmost.org/
NOV. 15th: WHAT IS THAT TO THEE? (O. Chambers)
"Lord, what shall this man do? . . What is that to thee? Follow thou Me." John 21:21,2
"One of our severest lessons comes from the stubborn refusal to see that we must not interfere in other people's lives. It takes a long time to realize the danger of being an amateur providence, that is, interfering with God's order for others. You see a certain person suffering, and you say - He shall not suffer, and I will see that he does not. You put your hand straight in front of God's permissive will to prevent it, and God says - "What is that to thee?" If there is stagnation spiritually, never allow it to go on, but get into God's presence and find out the reason for it. Possibly you will find it is because you have been interfering in the life of another; proposing things you had no right to propose; advising when you had no right to advise. When you do have to give advice to another, God will advise through you with the direct understanding of His Spirit; your part is to be so rightly related to God that His discernment comes through you all the time for the blessing of another soul."
In light of this message from Chambers, we must look at moving in this direction as a blessing and not as a way that we ought to get our act together. The gospel is that God wants us to let go of playing God in other people's lives but that this is a process. His shed blood covers us from all unrighteousness, even the very act of playing God. We are now free to try out new ways of living without the fear that God might reject us if we don't get it. The moment we recognize what we are doing and confess that to God is the moment the process has already begun. That is good news.
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*Chambers was a Scottish pastor born 1874; died 1917)
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