What God is Teaching Me: Striving or Yielding?

I think my favorite thing to do is to "try harder".  I'm always striving to get better and constantly looking for ways to improve ... so I work harder, pray longer, try and try again.  However, God is teaching me that this strategy is flawed and leads to frustration and failure.  Why?

Because God works by faith, not by works.  When I work, I compete with His work and negate faith.  God is honored and glorified by my faith, not my efforts.

The biblical strategy is to stop striving and start yielding to God.  Let God be God and respond to His work.  Here's how this seems to be working itself out in my life:

• Instead of "working for" God, I "work with" God.  Big difference. When I work for God, He is like a boss that I can disappoint.  When I work with God, He is a partner and I seek to cooperate with His work in me and around me.


• I can busy or I can be in touch with God, never both.  God is not busy, He is God.  When I am in step with Him and yielding to His still, small voice, I am not rushed, busy, or anxious ... I am fruitful, peaceful, and blessed.


• This does not mean I don't put forth an effort or try or work.  It means my effort is in a direction He gives, in a cause He initiates, and in a plan He develops.

At least for me, the problem is rarely a lack of effort; it is normally a problem of failing to yield myself to God.