One night, when I was worried sick about my child, I found four words sitting quietly on page 1291 of my Bible. I’d read them many times before but, this time, as I stared at them, they fairly flew at me like stones from a slingshot. The four words, now well underlined, are Leave room for God—from the phrase “leave room for God’s wrath” (Romans 12:19, NIV).
The immediate context involves retribution. When someone harms us, advises the writer, we shouldn’t try to get even, but should leave room for God’s wrath and let Him settle the score.
And, if we can leave room for God’s wrath, then, when facing other challenges, can we not leave room for His other attributes? For His power? For His grace? For His intervention? I underlined the words, “Leave room for God,” and have leaned on them ever since.
There are times to get proactive with our prodigal children but, at other times, even our best efforts will not solve the problem or alter the situation. In those cases, we must leave room for God to work, praying and waiting for Him. Cameron V. Thompson wrote:
We must let God work. That is, we should not try to answer our own prayers, unless the Lord Himself should lead that way. Shall we take a sieve and try to make a passage through the Red Sea by bailing out the water, or shall we push at the walls of Jericho while marching around them? “Commit thy way unto [roll thy way upon] the LORD; trust also in Him; and He shall bring it to pass” (Psalm 37:5).9.
So, leave room for God; He alone can storm the impregnable, devise the improbable, and perform the impossible.