Let us God willingly

Let us say "God willing" By Fergus Davar

Hi people, today I read a piece of Biblical scripture that reminded me of something that has happened very often in my life and that is eating up my own words. I've eaten my words so many time that I am sick of its taste and this only makes me more careful of what I say and I now make sure to add to that 2 words "God willing" to whatever I say or hope for.

James 4:15
What you should say is this: "If the Lord is willing, we will live and do this or that."

You know sometimes we talk a lot on our steam about achieving this and that & so many times we fall flat on our faces. We thus eat our words with the bitter sauce of the self righteous pride with which we spoke them. Allow me to show you a Biblical record of this happening to God's people.

Jeremiah 42:1-6
1 Then all the army leaders, including Johanan son of Kareah and Azariah son of Heshaiah, came with people of every class 2 and said to me, "Please do what we ask you! Pray to the Lord our God for us. Pray for all of us who have survived. Once there were many of us; but now only a few of us are left, as you can see. 3 Pray that the Lord our God will show us the way we should go and what we should do."
4 I answered, "Very well, then. I will pray to the Lord our God, just as you have asked, and whatever he says, I will tell you. I will not keep back anything from you."
5 Then they said to me, "May the Lord be a true and faithful witness against us if we do not obey all the commands that the Lord our God gives you for us. 6 Whether it pleases us or not, we will obey the Lord our God, to whom we are asking you to pray. All will go well with us if we obey him."

Allow me to give you some background to the above scripture. God's people (of Judah) stray from God and the Babylonian empire attack capture Jerusalem but leave the poor people still in the land and appoint Gedaliah as governor. Gedaliah is plotted against and murdered under the scheme of the King Baalis of Ammon. The people of Judah and left desolate with out anyone to govern them and so they approach the prophet Jeremiah & the above scripture is the conversation which followed.

What you need to notice from the above scripture is the air of self confidence in the people who say that they are willing to obey the Lord no matter what (verses 5 & 6).

God answers Jeremiah's prayer 10 days later and Jeremiah tells the people that God will build them up and preserve them but they need to stay in the land despite the horror they faced. Under no condition were they to leave the land and flee to Egypt. If they did go to Egypt then the disaster that they were hoping to escape would catch up with them and destroy them.

Now allow me to quote what happen after the prophet Jeremiah finishes delivering God's message.

Jeremiah 43:1-7
1 I finished telling the people everything that the Lord their God had sent me to tell them. 2 Then Azariah son of Hoshaiah and Johanan son of Kareah and all the other arrogant men said to me, "You are lying. The Lord our God did not send you to tell us not to go and live in Egypt. 3 Baruch son of Neriah has stirred you up against us, so that the Babylonians will gain power over us and can either kill us or take us away to Babylonia." 4 So neither Johanan nor any of the army officers nor any of the people would obey the Lord's command to remain in the land of Judah. 5 Then Johanan and all the army officers took everybody left in Judah away to Egypt, together with all the people who had returned from the nations where they had been scattered: 6 the men, the women, the children, and the king's daughters. They took everyone whom Nebuzaradan the commanding officer had left under the care of Gedaliah, including Baruch and me. 7 They disobeyed the Lord's command and went into Egypt as far as the city of Tahpanhes.

Let me tell you of a similar lesson I learned in life, a few year back when I was coming to know of Jesus, I started to go to friends place to learn more about this amazing Jesus. One day I felt so good after my worship, I said to my friend, you know what, nothing is going to spoil my day today, let the worst thing happen to me& I will take it in the good spirit, something very similar to the words the people spoke in Jeremiah 42:5-6 based on their own self confidence not on God's power. I then headed of to work filled with my own pride and guess what happens that day to me; I am told that I am going to be kicked out because my boss did not like the tone of my letter which I sent the previous day. My day spoils and I cry and curse under my breath as the unbeliever I still was, right till the next morning. Man did I eat my words! I said that all on my own steam, I did not seek God's counsel in helping me stick to my statement. I spoke as though my will and my power were separate from God. I felt that I had full control over myself and my action, however at that time I was indeed separate from God as I was still to accept Jesus as my Lord and Savior. God however was still in full control but he allowed me to learn my lesson by letting me reap the horror of making statements based on my own strength. I feel strongly now that Jesus has more control over me than I have over myself, the notion of free will is something I can no longer grasp.

What I would like to tell you from all this is that in all that you say, seek Jesus and let it be that your statements of achievement are left to God to fulfill by His grace, in His time & according to His purpose.

Also check the below scripture, you will see that vilest of people are making headways to heaven just because their action are based on their faith in Jesus. Their actions unlike the religious leader were not base on statements of their own pride.

Matthew 21:28-32 (Jesus tell a story to the chief priest and teachers of the Law)
28 "Now, what do you think? There was once a man who had two sons. He went to the elder one and said, 'Son, go and work in the vineyard today.' 29 'I don't want to,' he answered, but later he changed his mind and went. 30 Then the father went to the other son and said the same thing. 'Yes, sir,' he answered, but he did not go. 31 Which one of the two did what his father wanted?"
"The elder one," they answered.
So Jesus said to them, "I tell you: the tax collectors and the prostitutes are going into the Kingdom of God ahead of you. 32 For John the Baptist came to you showing you the right path to take, and you would not believe him; but the tax collectors and the prostitutes believed him. Even when you saw this, you did not later change your minds and believe him.

Note: This is what John the Baptist preached about Jesus to the people. It is also important to note that John the Baptist was born before Jesus & so when he says that Jesus existed before him, John is referring to Jesus as eternal.
John 1:29-30
29 The next day John saw Jesus coming to him, and said, "There is the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world! 30 This is the one I was talking about when I said, 'A man is coming after me, but he is greater than I am, because he existed before I was born.' 31 I did not know who he would be, but I came baptizing with water in order to make him known to the people of Israel."
32 And John gave this testimony: "I saw the Spirit come down like a dove from heaven and stay on him. 33 I still did not know that he was the one, but God, who sent me to baptize with water, had said to me, 'You will see the Spirit come down and stay on a man; he is the one who baptizes with the Holy Spirit.' 34 I have seen it," said John, "and I tell you that he is the Son of God."

Notice also how Apostle Paul uses the term "God willing" & also he says that the Kingdom of God is not of words.

1 Corinthians 4:19-20 (Apostle Paul to the early Church of Corinth)
19 If the Lord is willing, however, I will come to you soon, and then I will find out for myself the power which these proud people have, and not just what they say. 20 For the Kingdom of God is not a matter of words but of power.

Eating words based on our own strength, is something you may be sick of, like me or may be you tasted so much of it that it has become tasteless and remains in your mouth as though it were your own saliva, either way my friend, this is one of the countless ways God is using to teach us that you don't arrive all by yourself to success. By yourself you are doomed to fail but by submitting & trusting in God, you will learn of the forgiveness of sin that is in Him (Jesus) & He will make you a success.

By Fergus Davar (Saved by HIS grace), just a pen in His Hand.

Article Source: http://www.faithwriters.com CHRISTIAN WRITERS