All in Favor

I Chronicles 13, "David conferred with each of his officers, the commanders of thousand and commanders of hundreds. he then said to the whole assembly of Israel, 'If it seems good to you and if it is the will of the LORD our God, let us send word far and wide to the rest of our people throughout the territories of Israel, and also to the priests and Levites who are with them in their towns and pasturelands, to come and join us. Let us bring the ark of our God back to us, for we did not inquire of it during the reign of Saul.' The whole assembly agreed to do this, because it seemed right to all the people." NIV

I read a quote somewhere that said, "For God so loved the world that He did not send a committee." My sentiment exactly.

We have this tendency as humans to reason with our minds. It's a beautiful thing, our mind. With this God-given center of our physical existence, we can think, remember, reason, justify, and caution ourselves." It's a natural thing, also, that as we grow to maturity in our physical bodies to grow to maturity in our way of thinking. But often times, our human logic overshadows our ability to seek God's wisdom.

Even with good intentions of bringing others to know Him, and bringing glory to His Name, we can put more emphasis on our having "thought-through" decisions and actions rather than "prayed-through."

David had good intentions in desiring the Ark of the Covenant to be returned to Jerusalem. Apparently, Saul never sensed the importance of it, and David was convinced that it was necessary to their political and religious well-being. Flexing his new leadership muscles, he wisely discussed the decision with the officers and commanders first before presenting the idea to Israel. And when he did present the plan to Israel, he wisely told them, "If it's okay with you...oh, and if it's the will of Yahweh." The Scripture though only states that they agreed to do it because it "seemed right to all the people." Wow. They agreed. They were unified in saying, "I." And there were no naysayers. So they went forward with their plan.

If you remember, there was a certain way that God had instructed His people to transport the ark. But they didn't do it this way. They used a cart, and when the ark started to slip, Uzzah instinctively reached up to steady it. He died. They were commanded not to touch the ark because it was holy. The celebration of bringing the ark back to Jerusalem ended abruptly because of the disastrous attempt to do what "seemed right."

Remember that David urged them to seek the Lord, but they just plowed on ahead with their plan because it "seemed right." It was a great timing, after all. They had new leadership, and there were new things happening. It was only right that it was time for the Ark of the Covenant to be returned to its rightful place. But they didn't seek the Lord, and it ended in death.

Too many times, we plow ahead with plans because they seem right. Even with great intentions of seeing souls saved and bringing glory to God, our best efforts can end in disaster when we don't seek Him.

We try to keep peace in our churches by giving into opinionated committee members when they feel strongly about a situation. We try to keep the peace in the world when we encounter others who scoff at the idea of seeking the Lord. We try to reason with our finite minds, even with God, when we are afraid of what His will might cost us.

But when we try to do things in the realm of our own understanding, it only brings death. Instead of a celebration, we end up wondering where we went wrong. And even like David, we blame God for Him not blessing our plans.

When we read ahead in this book, we see a far different outcome when David followed the Lord's commands for returning the Ark of the Covenant. It was an outcome that ended in celebration, dancing, and blessing.

Have you tried to reason with yourself, others, and even God to accomplish your plans? How did it end? If we would only seek Him and find His direction, situations and circumstances would be far different. No committee's wisdom can measure up to the direction of Almighty God.

Faith

We were just babies ourselves when our daughter, Faith was born. Married just 11 months and one week, we were still in college and worked full-time jobs to provide for ourselves. I was 21 years old, and Heath was 24. What were we thinking? Honestly, we weren't thinking.

After the initial shock wore off, we embraced excitement. Soon, though, that excitement turned into fear. How in the world were we going to raise, let alone pay, for a baby? We weren't even grown ourselves...at least, I wasn't. Daycare costs were out the roof, diapers and formula were at prices that I thought had to be a joke. But it was no joke. A baby was coming, whether we were ready or not. We named her Faith, due to the simple fact that we knew our precious gift, straight from Him, would be raised totally on faith in Him alone.

Today, we have a smart, sweet, kind-hearted, and Christ-loving 13 year old. God has provided abundantly for Faith, and for us, and we thank Him every day for her.

As I was reading in Hebrews 11, the faith chapter, the morning, I thought of all of the scary situations those leaders and figures of the Bible found themselves. Verse 6 says, "And it is impossible to please God without faith. Anyone who wants to come to him must believe that God exists and that he rewards those who sincerely seek him." Is it really impossible to please God without faith? Read on in the chapter. I would say, yes, it is impossible to please God without faith.

Think about it...if you can "figure out" every situation in life that you encounter, where is there room for faith in God to work it out? If we can see the end result of every hardship we face, where does it leave room for God to move and to work for His good pleasure? In fact, how can we even call it "faith" if we know in advance how this is going to work out? Verse 1 gives us the definition, "Faith is the confidence that what we hope for will actually happen, it gives us assurance about things we cannot see."

Ah! There it is...confidence and assurance. Faith isn't the same as hope. No, hoping means that we have in mind a desired end-result, but we know there's a chance that it may not happen. Faith means we have confidence and are assured that God is in control, and therefore, the situation will be fulfilled according to His will.

And what is His will? That we would know Him, and that others would know Him. It's very simple.

Think about the situations mentioned in Hebrews 11. All of them had an end result of people growing closer to God. All of them had an end-result of eternal significance. The situations in our lives are no different. What is God trying to do in and through those situations that we are so fearful of? Maybe...just maybe...He's trying to use them to draw you, and others, to Himself. Are you looking at them, and acting within them, through faith?