Thursday's Thoughts

Have you ever had God speak to you to do something, and even though you knew it was Him, you failed to obey, because you had very logical reasons as to why you shouldn’t do it? Maybe you have even told Him the reasons, in order to explain your disobedience.

Maybe there is something in your life now that you know God has told you to do, yet everything seems to indicate that it would not be wise to do it. So now you are faced with questions: Can you trust God? Do you really believe that He knows what is best, and that He wants the best for you? Well, the answers are: Yes, you can trust Him, yes, He knows what is best, and yes, He definitely wants what is best for you. But He will never force you to obey. He has given you a will, and the freedom to exercise that will.

Let’s look in God’s Word at some examples where God spoke to individuals to do something, and it looked totally absurd in the natural, but when they were obedient, they reaped the blessings of obedience.

How about Noah? It had never even rained when God spoke to him to build an ark! But we know that Noah did just as he was told, even though he was scoffed at, and probably had thoughts himself that what he was doing was ridiculous. However, when the ark was ready, and Noah had brought his family and the animals inside, God sent the rain and destroyed everything and everyone else, just as He had said. Of course, Noah and his family were all safe, due to his obedience.

In II Kings, chapter 4, we are told about a widow who had creditors planning to take her sons, because she couldn’t pay her bills. Things looked completely hopeless. She only had a little oil, which would not sell for enough to pay her debt. She went to Elisha, who was a man of God, and what did the Lord have him tell her to do? He told her to go borrow vessels (not just a few) from her neighbors, and to pour her oil into them and sell it. She could have said, That makes absolutely no sense at all, because there is not enough to fill enough vessels to do any good. I am just going to waste my time and effort if I go gather more vessels. That will accomplish nothing in solving my problem. But she didn’t respond that way. She chose to be obedient to the Lord’s instructions, doing what He said, whether or not she understood what was going to happen. She borrowed the vessels, she started pouring the oil into them, and the Lord multiplied the oil so that it filled them all. She then sold the oil, paid the debt, and she and her sons lived on the rest.

In the 5^th chapter of Luke, we read that Peter, who was a fisherman, had been fishing all night and had caught not one fish. Jesus came to him the next morning and told him to put his nets (plural) down to catch fish. Now, after a night of catching nothing, it made no sense to Peter, to now let the nets down in the same water, expecting to catch anything. It probably sounded like it was a lot of effort for nothing. And before being obedient, Peter did point out the fact to Jesus that he had been there all night and hadn’t caught anything, but he went ahead to say that he would do it, just because Jesus told him to do it.

So the Word says he let down the net (singular), and caught so many fish that the net broke, and he had to have help in bringing all the fish to shore. Peter was partially (right there is another sermon) obedient – he dropped a net, not nets. Maybe he wasn’t convinced that the results would be great, so he didn’t want to expend any more effort than necessary to check it out, but yet, he didn’t want to miss out if a blessing really was in store.

Have you ever been there? The Lord told you to do something, but you didn’t want to completely step out in obedience, just in case things did not work out well, so you just did part of what He told you to do. If so, you may still have received a blessing, but it may have been only a portion of what God had wanted to give you. Now, if you have done that, do not condemn yourself. Ask forgiveness, and move on in obedience.

Let’s look at one more example of Jesus telling someone to do something that seemed to make no sense at all. It was after Lazarus had died and was buried, and Jesus went to the place of the burial and saw Mary and Martha, the sisters of Lazarus. They were sad, and Mary even told Jesus that if He had been there, Lazarus would not have died. Jesus then told them to take away the stone that covered the grave. Well, as much as they loved Jesus, and knew they could trust Him, this was just too much for their minds to readily accept. There was not instant obedience. Martha tried to explain to Jesus why that was not a good idea, as though maybe Jesus didn’t know all the details of the situation. She explained to him that her brother had been dead four days, and would already be stinking!

Had Jesus not known that when he told her what to do? Of course, He knew, and He also knew what the outcome was going to be if they would believe Him and then act in obedience. They would receive a blessing, and God would receive glory. They moved the stone as they were told, and then Jesus spoke to Lazarus to come forth, and restored him to life.

All the situations mentioned above prove that God has ways for our lives sometimes that we do not understand at the time He gives us direction, but if we will just step out in faith and be obedient, we will see His plan unfold, and we will reap the rewards of obedience. We need to remember that He has ways of getting blessings to us that we would never dream. We just need to be in tune to His leading, and obey Him.

So whatever God tells you to do – just do it!