Suppose a child has a broken toy.
He brings the toy to his father, saying that he
himself has tried to fix it and has failed.
He asks his father to do it for him.
The father gladly agrees. . .
takes the toy. . .
and begins to work.
Now obviously the father can do his work most quickly and easily if the child makes no attempt to interfere, simply sits quietly watching, or even goes about other business, with never a doubt that the toy is being successfully mended.
But what do most of God’s children do in such a situation?
Often we stand by offering a lot of meaningless advice and some rather silly criticism.
We even get impatient and try to help,
and so get our hands in the Father’s way,
generally hindering the work. . .
Finally, in our desperation, we may even grab the toy out of the Father’s Hands entirely, saying rather bitterly that we hadn’t really thought He could fix it anyway. . .that we’d given Him a chance and He had failed us.
-Peter Marshall
“Grabbing the toy away is certainly not trust. But what does demonstrate trust is to put the thing or the person one loves best into the Father’s hands to do with as He pleases. Thus faith is by no means absent in the Prayer of Relinquishment. In fact this prayer is faith in action.
And that is why this prayer is answered, even when the one making the relinquishment has little hope that what he fears most can be avoided. For I have always felt that God is not half so concerned about our having a few negative thoughts as He is concerned with what we do. And the act of placing what we cherish most in His hands is to Him the sweet music of the essence of faith.”
Catherine Marshall