Thought fo the day - 01/03/07

Lord, What Do You Want Me To Do?
His will verses Man’s will
Jeremiah 29:11

In Jeremiah 29:11, King James Version, we see where Jeremiah wrote a letter to the captives in Babylon. In this passage, we should take note that the Lord had something to say also. Jeremiah writes, “For I know the thought that I think toward you, saith the LORD, thoughts of peace, and not of evil, to give you and expected end.”
We know the Bible tells us that God foreknows everything. He is omnipresent, omniscient, and omnipotent. Omnipresent means He is everywhere at all times. Omniscient means He knows everything. For a friend of mine, He is the only one that knows when you have been bad or good. He is the only one that knows when you awake and sleeping. He knows all things about you. Omnipotent means He is ALMIGHTY. He has unlimited power, authority, and influence. HE IS GOD! We can be comforted in knowing that these facts are true. But there are questions that we all ponder at times. With God being Almighty, with unlimited power, authority, and influence, why doesn’t HE influence man to do HIS will? Good question, huh? The answers are simple to this question, or are they?
We find throughout the Old Testament where the Lord had rules for His children to follow. They were held to the letter of the law. I’m reminded of a man named Achan. The Lord had told Joshua to take Israel into Ai, after Joshua had taken Jericho, and smite all the men, women, and children. He told them to kill their animals, and then burn all their possessions. However, Achan saw some things that he liked, and probably desired to have before, so he took them. From Jericho, Joshua sent spies into the land of Ai, to see what was needed to take this location. The spies came back and said, “Just send two or three thousand men to take this place, because they are few.” As you read further in Joshua 7, we find that Joshua did just that. As Israel approached Ai they found Ai prepared and they chased Israel down the mountain and killed 36 of the Israelites. Joshua fell on his face before the Lord and asked why? The Lord told him, “There is sin in the camp.” As the story goes on, we find out that Achan’s sin caused this to happen to Israel. He, his family, which included all women, children, and possibly grandchildren and their animals were stoned to death. Then they were burned. Achan’s lineage was stopped dead still.
We find that there are still rules for Christians to follow today too. There are many religious people who think that the Old Testament does not apply to us, but we find that the New Testament fulfills and backs up the Old Testament. However, what is the difference. If one of God’s people did not do what he had been told to, there was a good possibility that their lives on this earth would cease. God seemed to hold the children of Israel to a higher standard, or did He? In fact, the Lord expects His children to be just obedient as He expected Israel to be in the Old Testament. The key word for this day is, yep you guessed it, “GRACE.” We know Jesus gave His life for us and opened up grace. Wow! What a word! Paul told the church of Ephesus, “For by grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God: Not of works, lest any man should boast,” (Ephesians 2:8 – 9). However, we need to understand that grace is not a ticket to do whatever we want too. All too often we find people, who under the heading, “Christian,” lead lives that they think are okay to do. Even after being taught by the Word of God to be separate from the world, we decide, ‘well I’m under grace, so it won’t matter.’ I realize nobody thinks that before they do wrong things, but the action of these people say it loud and clear; don’t they?
These actions are not the only thing that people do either. There are people who live Christian lives, serve the Lord, and seem to really love the Lord, who still make decisions against God’s will. Why do we do this folks? Why doesn’t God, who is everywhere, all powerful, and knows everything we do, just take us by our hand and say, ‘here Ronnie, or whomever, I want you to do this and really persuade or force us to do it? Wouldn’t that be the simple way to do it? Or, as Becky would say, “God just give me a billboard sign, so I will know what you really want me to do.” I know God has the ability to do this, but there is a reason He doesn’t do this all the time. I feel He does persuade us to do things sometimes, but then there are times He doesn’t. If He made us do what He wanted us to do, we wouldn’t have a choice. Choices are a big part of life.
The Lord wants us to choose HIM! He doesn’t want us to be forced to choose HIM. If He made us choose Him, then grace would not be needed, would it? What does this have to do with Jeremiah’s writing? He does know what He wants for us. He knows His plan for us. It is not always easy to wait upon the Lord for Him to show us His will for us. However, we have to work our faith in Him. I personally have had a hard time waiting on Him in areas of my life. I know I’m not the only one that has. However, waiting is a key ingredient to bringing Him honor and glory. After all, it’s all about Him. I have a desire to do something, and many times I have gotten really discouraged. A couple of times I got so discouraged that I almost threw my hands up and said, ‘why do I even go to church any more?” I almost dropped out, because I felt like God just didn’t want to use me any longer. I lost focus! I’m so focused on me that I can’t see Him. I find that there are victories that come from waiting. Discouragement comes from not being as close to God as we need to be. Why do I say this? We need to understand that Satan attacks those who are weak faster than those who are strong. You get stronger by being closer to the Lord. You get closer to the Lord by doing his will. We know Satan attacks strong people also. When we rely on the Lord, He blocks Satan for us. Discouragement comes from not relying on the Lord enough.
How do we get closer to Him then? We get closer to Him by talking to Him. Studying His Word and obeying His Word, which in turn makes us stronger. People are always going to make decisions. Some of their decisions will hurt others. Do they intentionally hurt others? Sometimes, they do, but most of the time they don’t. People have choices. Not all choices or decisions we make are God lead decisions though. To accomplish making God lead decisions, we must listen to Him, which get us out of the way. We have a choice to accept Christ as Savior or reject Him. We have a choice to follow Him or do our own thing. We have a choice to do whatever we want. Many times when we do what we want, it’s not necessarily what God wants us to do. Are there penalties and rewards for doing it our way? Absolutely! We reap what we sow, period. The Lord desires us to be obedient, to be His child, and to serve Him. As many of us have found, doing it God’s way is always better. Eventually it turns out that we are going to do it His way any way. Remember; it has got to be all about HIM anyway. When we get “I” and “me” out of the way, we usually find out what His will is for us a lot faster. I believe that this is a lesson we could all learn from