He has made everything beautiful in its time…—Ecclesiastes 3:11 ESV
I watched a movie—Premarital —where a pastor’s daughter, living away from home, returned with the man she wanted to marry. They planned to get married before returning to their base. Unknown to the pastor, his daughter was no longer in the faith, and the boyfriend was an unbeliever. The lady tried to coach her boyfriend on what to say to her father so it wouldn’t be obvious he wasn’t a Christian. But her boyfriend couldn’t do that or lie because he needed to be true to himself.
The family eventually found out that the boyfriend wasn’t a Christian, so the pastor, along with the rest of the family, made it their duty to ensure the boyfriend got saved and became a Christian before the marriage happened in 7 days. They were on a mission of conversion!
The film reminded me of how sometimes, as Christians, we want to do God’s work for Him, like trying to force our children, friends or family members to get saved. Instead of loving them as God commanded, we Bible-bash them and send them running miles away from God. Like Judas (as discussed in past weeks), we want to force God’s hand to act on our hopes and dreams. We think and hope that prayer, fasting, and quoting God’s word will change His mind, even if what we desire isn’t in God’s timing or will. Please don’t get me wrong: praying, fasting, and quoting God’s word are the right things to do, but they must be within God’s will. We can’t really do anything to change God’s mind – “God is not man, that he should lie, or a son of man, that he should change his mind…” Numbers 23: 19 (ESV)
“For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways, declares the Lord.
For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts.” Isaiah 55:8-9 (ESV)
Sometimes, to force God’s hand (as if we can!), we take actions we are not meant to take, maybe out of lack of faith or impatience, and the outcomes can be disastrous. We then ask God to clean up our mess, and mercifully He does, but not without us facing the consequences of our actions.
The Bible has a few stories where people tried to do what only God is meant to do, and it ended disastrously. One good example is Abraham and Sarah, who tried to force God’s promise into reality. They tried to do what only God is meant to do instead of waiting on Him in faith and not running ahead of Him.
We will discuss this further next time.
Stay blessed,
LaraLex
