From Pastor Ben
Bible Trivia:
Two days ago I asked you to tell me which son led a rebellion against his father, King David? I asked you if it was Solomon or Nathan or Absalom, or was it Bathsheba? Then I told you to pick the one you thought it was. Well, the correct answer was-- drum roll-- Absalom. This is the son who David influenced the least by not disciplining him for his evil and by refusing to spend time with him. This led to him not passing on to his son his many Biblical insights. This resulted in Absalom rebelling against his father and his God.
Challenge:
Ecclesiastes 8:7
"Indeed, how can people avoid what they don’t know is going to happen?"
We see here that God has appointed a time for everything, but man knows neither the time nor the outcome of tomorrow. These uncertainties, without a desire to follow after God, can increase our inner misery. James made a very similar statement in James 4:14, "How do you know what your life will be like tomorrow? Your life is like the morning fog—it's here a little while, then it's gone." In other words, we as human beings have no control of our future. Only one person in all of time has ever had control of these things, Jesus Christ (John 10:18).
We must come to grips with the fact that there is so much that we don't know or can even do to affect the future. We cannot know the "future" - what is going to happen or when the things of our future will occur. Only our Father can know what today holds or even what the future has in store. Therefore, it is vitally important that we stay in tune with the Spirit's direction in our lives.
Our Father knows what is ahead in our life so it is best that we begin each day by surrendering ourselves to His way. Start it by listening to His voice as He speaks to us in the Bible. Next, ssurrender your way to Him verbally tthrough your words of prayer. It is so easy to think we can control the events of our live when, in fact, only He has that control.
We can, however, somewhat predict our future direction by the wise or foolish choices we make today. The only place that we have the ability to bring influence in and through our lives is as we walk in harmony with His ways. He teaches us just how to respond to the events of our lives. He instructs in the Word and through the power of the Holy Spirit within us how to react to the struggles of our lives.
I remember the conversations that both Mom and Dad left me with in their lives. Mom said over and over to me growing up, "Bennie, everyday is a test as to how you will live by obeying Him or disobeying Him. If you spend the majority of your life obeying Him, then you'll have very few regrets."
As I lay next to my mom with her speech gone, and her body controlled by ALS for our very last time together, I sang several songs to her. One song I sang was "It will be worth it all when we see Jesus" I assured her that I wouldn't forget this lesson she had indelibly imprinted on my life. All she could do was weep her affirmation of this truth. That same day I boarded a plane and went back home to my family. Within the month, Dad called to tell me that Mom had been released to go to her home in heaven. He told me that they had a record of George Shea singing that very song that I had sung to her our last time together. She wanted to listen to that song over and over many times a day. That very life message that she had lived out everyday before us kids was still her theme to herself until the day of her release to heaven.
SO GO WITH GOD, my dear one, and keep the words of that song in your mind. "It will be worth it all." No matter how difficult and seemingly impossible it is to live in a way that is pleasing to Christ, stay the course, my dear one It WILL be worth it all when we together see Jesus.