Good Morning Everyone,
Our theme for this month: “Trusting God”
Our Bible verse for today: “God gave Solomon wisdom and very great insight.” 1 Kings 4:29 (NIV)
Our thought for today: “Trusting God does not excuse us from using common sense and from making good decisions.”
At this point in our consideration of the theme of trusting God, I think it will be helpful to inject a word of caution. Trusting God does not relieve us of our responsibility to use common sense and make good decisions.
Unfortunately sometimes Christians do exactly that. Sometimes we use the idea of “trusting God” as a convenient catch-all that relieves us of the responsibility we have to be smart and to make good choices. At that point “Trusting God” becomes little more than god-talk.
At one point in my life I worked in a Christian work environment where the staff was expected to carry a heavy load as a matter of regular routine. Then we lost a staff member, but the overall workload was not scaled back at all. The decision by the boss was for people who were already working long and hard, to now work longer and harder and under even greater pressure.
Although not every project was immediately necessary, the boss would not back off on anything, not even for a while. The way it was justified was “Let’s just trust God to enable us to do it.” The problem was that those who remained on that staff were overloaded and burning out. The “trusting God” mantra recited by the boss was little more than convenient god-talk so he didn’t have to make hard choices.
Dr. J. Vernon McGee once told the story of a brash young man who frequently made poor choices and took unnecessary risks. When Dr. McGee attempted to counsel the young man about his poor decision making the young man replied, “Look, I trust God to take care of me. So even if I decide to go stand in front of a speeding train, if it’s not my God-ordained time to go, then I’ll be just fine. I trust God.”
Dr. McGee replied, “My friend, if you go stand in front of a speeding train I can assure you it will be your time to go. And that will be true no matter how much you were trusting in God for some other outcome!”
Trusting God does not relieve us of using common sense and making good decisions. You may be trusting God for a large increase in your income when what’s really needed, is for you to make better choices with the income you already have. Likewise, you may be trusting God for a miracle cure for your heart condition when what is really needed, is for you to make some lifestyle changes with respect to diet and exercise. And if your staff is already overloaded and burning out, rather than trusting God to empower them to herculean efforts, maybe you need to make better management decisions regarding what a reasonable workload actually is.
God gave Solomon the wisdom and the ability to make good decisions and smart choices. As long as Solomon did that, he was fine. When he stopped using common sense God simply stood back and allowed him to suffer the consequences. That will be true in your life and mine as well.
Trusting God does not relieve us from our responsibility to use common sense and to make good choices.
God Bless,
Pastor Jim
Oak Hill Baptist Church 