I often find myself trying to push God around — that is, trying to make things happen before His time.

For example, when I’m working on a song, a client’s case, or a devotional — or even when I want a relationship to work — I push hard to make it happen.

When I’m pushing hard, my jaw cramps, I grind my teeth at night, I don’t eat, my face breaks out, and … Well, you know this because you’ve probably got your own version of these symptoms.

I become so obsessed with what I’m trying to accomplish that it dominates my thoughts.

What’s even sadder is that I often give my pushiness a pass by claiming it will glorify God.

Wow — what a great delusion.

Glorifying God is only by doing things His way and in His time.

Related: Don’t Be Too Independent of the Lord

God doesn’t ride OUR train.

He has His own train, complete with a schedule and a destination.

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God put down the tracks. He is the conductor. He has planned the schedule and the destination.

We need to quit trying to be the conductor.

The Bible says, “For everything there is a season, a time for every activity under heaven. Yet God has made everything beautiful for its own time. He has planted eternity in the human heart, but even so, people cannot see the whole scope of God’s work from beginning to end” (Ecclesiastes‬ 3‬:1,11‬).

Related: How Our Strongest Critics Bless Us

We can’t see the future.

We don’t know which choices we make today will positively (or negatively) change the eternal destiny of another person.

Only God knows all things.

God put down the tracks. He is the conductor. He has planned the schedule and the destination.

Our job is to listen and follow, not to attempt to push God around.

Besides, we aren’t big enough to push Him around — so all we accomplish when we do this is to push ourselves away from Him.

God always has the BEST plan.

We never need to push Him to get it done.