Monday, June 26, 2017

The Danger Of Letting Your Want Be Greater Than Your Need



We…plead with you not to receive the grace of God in vain. —2 Corinthians 6:1

{CHAMBERS} “The grace you had yesterday will not be sufficient for today. Grace is the overflowing favor of God, and you can always count on it being available to draw upon as needed. “…in much patience, in tribulations, in needs, in distresses”— that is where our patience is tested (2 Corinthians 6:4). Are you failing to rely on the grace of God there? Are you saying to yourself, “Oh well, I won’t count this time”? It is not a question of praying and asking God to help you— it is taking the grace of God now. We tend to make prayer the preparation for our service, yet it is never that in the Bible. Prayer is the practice of drawing on the grace of God. Don’t say, “I will endure this until I can get away and pray.” Pray now — draw on the grace of God in your moment of need. Prayer is the most normal and useful thing; it is not simply a reflex action of your devotion to God.”


{ELGIN}  The idea is that God gives us what we need for the moment.  (Matthew 6:25-34) “For this reason I [Jesus] say to you, do not be worried about your life, as to what you will eat or what you will drink; nor for your body, as to what you will put on. Is not life more than food, and the body more than clothing? Look at the birds of the air, that they do not sow, nor reap nor gather into barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not worth much more than they? And who of you by being worried can add a single hour to his life?  And why are you worried about clothing? Observe how the lilies of the field grow; they do not toil nor do they spin, yet I say to you that not even Solomon in all his glory clothed himself like one of these. But if God so clothes the grass of the field, which is alive today and tomorrow is thrown into the furnace, will He not much more clothe you? You of little faith! Do not worry then, saying, ‘What will we eat?’ or ‘What will we drink?’ or ‘What will we wear for clothing?’ For the Gentiles eagerly seek all these things; for your heavenly Father knows that you need all these things. But seek first His kingdom and His righteousness, and all these things will be added to you. “So do not worry about tomorrow; for tomorrow will care for itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own.”

Jesus gave us the example of always looking to the Father.  Have you ever said “I don’t know how we are going to ………” you can fill in the blank.  When life seems impossible.  A friend of mine had a sticker that said “Life may seem impossible, but it is always Him-possible”  God is the source – that is what Father means.  I heard someone scoffing (a man) the other day about the thinking that a man must always  be the provider when women are perfectly capable of working and earning for the family.  It made me think of how we often have a better idea about how life should work.  That is not to say that women should not work.  But very often, women must go to work because the family is trying to maintain a lifestyle and not to nurture a family.  I am not speaking to situations where the woman must work because the husband can’t or won’t.  When our want is greater than God’s provision, we often put our own plan of provision into place to “make it happen”.  In the same way, we worry about tomorrow .. well, in this country, we worry about 40 years from now. Many people save so they will be “free” to serve God when they retire.  I wonder what they would do if god wanted to serve today.   How do we balance that thinking in light of Jesus words?  Our culture would call my thinking irresponsible.  (1 Corinthians 2:14) “But a natural man does not accept the things of the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness to him; and he cannot understand them, because they are spiritually appraised.”  Jesus was totally dependent upon the Father .. as we should be.  If you are sincerely depending upon God, you will be constantly looking up to the Father and not in to your own designs. 

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