It is annoying, downright annoying, when assembling a jigsaw puzzle, to find that a piece is in the wrong place. One part of the piece that connected to the other pieces fits correctly. And it seemed to match the corresponding picture. Yet when you try to connect the other pieces to it, they just will not fit. You analyze the region around the problem area, and the picture the puzzle is cut from, and then go back to the offending pieces. You begin to grow frustrated with what should be working out just fine. The other pieces connect to each other without any problem. Why can’t they connect to this piece? They fit all of the other pieces around this problem piece. You eventually succumb to brute force. With the bottom of a heavyweight cup, you pound the offending areas into place. Problem solved! you gleefully think to yourself. But, wait, now the result doesn’t match the rest of the bigger picture! After some careful inspection, you realize that you were wrong and that one problem piece did not belong there all along. With a little more searching in the vast pile of untouched pieces, you find one you had overlooked. Then, much to your delight, it all works out fine (until it happens all over again in a different place).
How often in your life’s puzzle does a particular piece not quite fit right? No matter what you do, there ends up being a portion that won’t connect to the other pieces. So you analyze your life thus far, and conclude that everything seems right. Well, maybe, not one hundred percent. Actually, it is more like eighty percent—although it really could be only sixty-five percent complete—but it is getting better all the time, you tell yourself. Yet, in reality, your life never will be complete. Why? Because you are trying to solve it all yourself and make everything fit your way.
God did not design you to solve the puzzle of your life by yourself. He did not create you to be self-sufficient and completely independent. He wants you to be dependent on Him for everything. God is not a crutch for the weak and ignorant.
“For by thee I have run through a troop: by my God have I leaped over a wall. As for God, his way is perfect; the word of the Lord is tried: he is a buckler to all them that trust in him. For who is God, save the Lord? and who is a rock, save our God? God is my strength and power: and he maketh my way perfect…Thou hast also given me the shield of thy salvation: and thy gentleness hath made me great.”
2 Samuel 22:30-36
When you start trying to solve all of your problems by yourself, you are working in your own fallible strength. You begin putting wrong pieces in place thinking that you doing the right thing and conclude that the correct pieces you inserted earlier are now wrong. You continue this cycle over and over until you reach a point where you are weary in your own strength and give up. You might also reach a point where you have become so accustomed to having the wrong pieces in place that you begin forcefully trying to make the surrounding pieces fit too, only to find that now none of it looks right. It is then that you go for help outside of your self. Yet you find that the problems are still not solved; instead, they are just adjusted so that they appear to be solved, leaving you with hidden pain.
So what is the solution? How can anyone get the ‘wrong’ pieces to fit in to the right places? Where do you go for help when all of the ‘help’ is struggling with wrong pieces in their own lives (and many times not even aware of it)? Who can take away the pain, both inward and outward, that these wrong pieces are causing in your life?
The answer is very simple—it is Jesus Christ. When you turn all of the issues, pain, and problems over to Him, and let Him take care of them, you will find that the pieces will start to fit correctly again. But if you take over your own life again, and return to assembling your puzzle by yourself, or you become proud of the picture formed by your life’s puzzle, that is when you will find those wrong pieces reappearing. It is only when you surrender your ‘puzzle’ over to Jesus, and let Him do the assembling, that the pieces will fit where they belong each and every time. Jesus loves you more than you could ever know. He wants to assemble your life’s puzzle correctly. But it will only happen when you let Him. You need to “Draw [near] to God, and he will draw [near] to you” (James 4:8a). All it takes is a simple prayer like this:
Jesus, I am sorry for running my life in my way and in my own strength. Please forgive me for sinning against you. I now give my heart and life over to you, and will stop trying to force the wrong pieces in my puzzle to fit. Please come into my heart and assemble the puzzle of my life with the right pieces in the way that You know is best. I am tired of the hurt and pain that I battle with. I lay it all in Your arms and I surrender my will over to You. Please use me and direct me in the way that You know is right. Amen.
Remember, what you thought was right all along turned out to be the wrong piece. Sure, it seemed right when you first placed it in the puzzle. The colors and pattern appeared to be right, but it was still the wrong piece, and the surrounding pieces will never fit properly with it there. As long as you continue trying to assemble the puzzle of your life and to make it complete in yourself, in your own strength, you will always have wrong pieces in place. You must turn over the assembling of your puzzle to Jesus and let Him put in the right piece in the right place. Jesus knows your life better than you ever will. He is the only one who can remove the wrong piece and replace it with the correct piece at the appropriate time. Don’t let the pain and frustration of having all of these erroneous pieces in place get you down. Give your pieces over to Him and He will make a way for you.
(Opening image by spekulator on Freeimages.com]
