Ask

Living off the grid!  We’ve all heard about that way of living, yet very few of us would ever consider it for ourselves.  It is a challenging, labor-intensive lifestyle, which is completely independent and self-sufficient. You generate your own power, find your own water source, create your own sewer and waste system, and build your own shelter.

Granted, it is a lot of work but, for those who aren’t fans of traditional living, it’s a matter of being that doesn’t rely on anyone or anything else.  Everything about your existence depends solely on you.  While you will need to become an electrician, a plumber, and a mechanic, you can literally create the life you want.  This alternate lifestyle sounds kind of neat in theory but isn’t the type of homesteading many of us would ever choose.  Or would we?

Every day we make thousands of decisions.  While most of them are small and inconsequential—like what I’m going to wear to work today, or what we’re having for supper—mixed in with those trivial selections are big decisions.  Moments when we need to make a choice about something that will have a substantial, and often lasting, impact on our lives and those of others, like education, career, finances, relationships, and family.  They are all such an inherent, ingrained part of life that we tend to view them as simply a natural course of being human, one we’re just supposed to figure out along the way.  After all, that’s pretty much the definition of being an adult, right?—making choices and decisions about what we want in life.  However, most often, we jump straight into “figure-it-out mode” and, the minute we take that step of coming up with the answers all on our own, we are living off the grid.

This is not the grid in terms of the complex, impressive crossings of power lines and substations that sustain our homes and lifestyles.  Rather, it’s the framework of our spiritual power source.  Every time we move through life, making choices and decisions on our own, without God, we are living off His grid.  We are out there in a remote existence, where we do everything ourselves.  We disconnect from His wisdom, His guidance, and His will for our lives without even realizing it.

How do we stay on His grid?  We seek Him first.  Matthew 6:33 says, “But seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things will be provided for you.”  Jesus didn’t say to seek Him every now and then or seek Him after you’ve tried your way and failed or seek Him when you can’t figure things out yourself.  No, He said, seek Him first, before all others—asking for His direction, His opinion, and His guidance before anything else, before anyone else.  “Do this, and all these things will be provided for you.”  His words tell us right there that we will be given what is needed.  We will be prepared, equipped, and furnished with the answers and help we need.

So, I encourage you today to keep top of mind just how easily we can slip into the life of a nomad—that drifter living off the grid, that transient managing things on our own.  And, instead, take hold of the words Jesus Himself spoke to us—seek Him first.  God already knows what we need; He’s already arranged and allocated our steps; all we need to do is ask.