Ouch. I didn't like that subject line at first but let's be honest, life goes a lot better when we don't park ourselves on Jesus' throne.
Recently, I was reading a book by Joel Osteen and he was talking about getting yourself off the throne so that Jesus can take His rightful place. I know most think of a throne as an ornate golden kings chair. For some reason, I think of it as a stage. A stage we take over and act out our lives on. A stage that belongs to Jesus. On this stage we get so busy trying to solve every problem, plan for A through D, let's be honest, A through Z, we drive ourselves crazy. We really hit a brick wall when we've exhausted all our ideas and things haven't resolved.
This is what it means to put ourselves on the throne, or on the stage. We take over, try to figure everything out in our own strength, we shove Jesus out of the way and WE get to work. Notice how many times I've said 'we'? Me, myself and I.
Jesus is a gentleman, He'll step aside and let you take center stage on His throne. While we're so busy being boss, guess what? He stops working. If we think we can do it, He'll back off and let us try. Probably knowing we'll come back beaten up and ready for His help at some point.
Joel's point was to get off the throne so God can get back on it. We know He can do anything so much better than we can. We know we don't have all the answers. So why do we do it? Why do we insert ourselves on the throne?
Because the world says too. Independence is strength. Success demands it. Gasp, what if you are.. weak. You can't figure it out, doesn't that make you weak? Maybe. Seems to me it makes you honest, and maybe we all need to be a little more honest with what we're capable of.
What about faith? When we're on that throne thinking we can figure out everything in life, control A-Z there is no need for a God. Do you want to imagine life with no God? Not me.
Knowing our limitations and picking our heads up to look around and notice we've climbed onto Jesus' throne is so important. We all do it. When I walk these lessons I imagine them in my mind. In this one, I imagined me stomping across a stage (the throne) ruminating, something makes me stop and I look to the side of the stage and there stands calm, Beautiful Jesus watching, smiling, waiting for me to notice Him. I walk to the edge, crawl over the side and let the King of kings walk upon HIS throne in His glorious beautiful way. What does He do? He lovingly goes to work helping me. Helping you. Because that's who He is.
Let's give Him back His throne. Let's pick our heads up and see we're on it. It doesn't mean we sit and do nothing in life, it means we act as partners with Him, not a party of one. While we might think we are the star of everything, we humbly are not.
If you are wracking your brain on a problem and only gaining frustrated ground, that's a good indication you're a party of one parked on the throne and maybe need to get off it. Not in weakness, but humility that you know life goes better with Him center stage.
