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“Get behind me, Satan! You are a stumbling block to me; you do not have
in mind the things of God, but the things of men.” – Matthew 16:23
It was a popular phrase when I was growing up, made so by a
comedian named Flip Wilson
back in the 1970’s. We would watch his
television show when I was a boy and I remember laughing so hard with my
family. Of course at that time, it was
simply humor to me as a 10 year old boy, it never dawned on me just how
revealing those simple words are, “The
Devil made me do it”
We are given freedom in this world to make choices, to decide our path in life and pursue our dreams in whatever manner necessary. There are times we are perfectly in line with the Lord’s path and times we are only seeking the pleasure of mankind. Who are we to understand the ways of God, to fully embrace the wisdom and omnipotence of the Almighty? This is far beyond the grasp of the wisest of mankind. If you were to approach this from a mathematical perspective you could put the entire knowledge of mankind throughout time in written form or spoken or thought on one side of an equation and give it the variable ‘M’. Now on the other side of the equation you would put the symbol ∞ (M), and the operand in the middle would of course be a ‘<’. So the equation would look something like this : M < ∞ (M); which simply means that regardless of the compilation of man’s knowledge, God’s knowledge is infinitely greater. Einstein, Socrates, Aristotle, Galileo, Newton, Plato, Pascal and the list of brilliant men goes on when joined together as one collective pool of knowledge fails to even register on the scale of wisdom from above.
To think that we have any ability to tell od what we think is the right thing to do in any situation is beyond reason and sheer foolishness. He does not need your input to solve a problem or to better understand or justify a situation. He fully comprehends every thought before the electrodes in your brain have relayed the information to your vocal cords and facial muscles to emanate a sound. Is there anything you can teach God? Really? Anything at all? Does He understand the plight of those in 3rd world countries struggling for food and water? Yes. Does He fully grasp the pain a family is going through when they can’t pay their bills this month? Yes. Does He realize the grief, the pain and the emptiness that a mother feels when she loses her daughter to drugs, prostitution or cancer? Yes. Do we believe that if we provide more justification or reasoning that God will see the circumstance our way and conform to our thinking?
It really comes down to a challenge of self-centeredness vs God-centeredness. You and I are either living for Him or living for ourselves, there can be no middle ground. He asks for us to be fully committed with all our heart, all our mind and all our soul (as we discussed earlier in the week). You are making the choice. It’s your call, and by not making that choice, you are making a choice. He tells those in the Church of Laodicea, in Revelations 3:15-16, that because they are lukewarm (neither hot nor cold) He will spit them out like vomit. Just as Joshua stated in Joshua 24:15 – “Today you must choose whom you will serve, but as for me and my house we will serve the Lord.” Stop telling God what you want Him to do, and start praising Him for what He has done and will do. Trust that He knows you well enough to get it right.
We are given freedom in this world to make choices, to decide our path in life and pursue our dreams in whatever manner necessary. There are times we are perfectly in line with the Lord’s path and times we are only seeking the pleasure of mankind. Who are we to understand the ways of God, to fully embrace the wisdom and omnipotence of the Almighty? This is far beyond the grasp of the wisest of mankind. If you were to approach this from a mathematical perspective you could put the entire knowledge of mankind throughout time in written form or spoken or thought on one side of an equation and give it the variable ‘M’. Now on the other side of the equation you would put the symbol ∞ (M), and the operand in the middle would of course be a ‘<’. So the equation would look something like this : M < ∞ (M); which simply means that regardless of the compilation of man’s knowledge, God’s knowledge is infinitely greater. Einstein, Socrates, Aristotle, Galileo, Newton, Plato, Pascal and the list of brilliant men goes on when joined together as one collective pool of knowledge fails to even register on the scale of wisdom from above.
To think that we have any ability to tell od what we think is the right thing to do in any situation is beyond reason and sheer foolishness. He does not need your input to solve a problem or to better understand or justify a situation. He fully comprehends every thought before the electrodes in your brain have relayed the information to your vocal cords and facial muscles to emanate a sound. Is there anything you can teach God? Really? Anything at all? Does He understand the plight of those in 3rd world countries struggling for food and water? Yes. Does He fully grasp the pain a family is going through when they can’t pay their bills this month? Yes. Does He realize the grief, the pain and the emptiness that a mother feels when she loses her daughter to drugs, prostitution or cancer? Yes. Do we believe that if we provide more justification or reasoning that God will see the circumstance our way and conform to our thinking?
It really comes down to a challenge of self-centeredness vs God-centeredness. You and I are either living for Him or living for ourselves, there can be no middle ground. He asks for us to be fully committed with all our heart, all our mind and all our soul (as we discussed earlier in the week). You are making the choice. It’s your call, and by not making that choice, you are making a choice. He tells those in the Church of Laodicea, in Revelations 3:15-16, that because they are lukewarm (neither hot nor cold) He will spit them out like vomit. Just as Joshua stated in Joshua 24:15 – “Today you must choose whom you will serve, but as for me and my house we will serve the Lord.” Stop telling God what you want Him to do, and start praising Him for what He has done and will do. Trust that He knows you well enough to get it right.
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