Monday, March 14, 2016

Our First To-Do May Be To Ask Him

Whoo hoo! It's Monday! The day we get to go back to work! It sure is dark out; will work be held today? Will the sun come up again? It must be that dreaded spring-ahead time change. Millions of sleepy people will get up to drive to work this morning; let's stay out of their way by sleeping in this morning. Sigh, some good solutions are just not allowed in this world.

While we learn to trust fully in God, we may fall into a time of doing nothing. After all, we are trusting in God to take care of us and make provision, right? There is no need to save money in an account, to invest for college, or to be prudent in our spending, because we are safe in the Lord's mighty hand. Hmm, sounds a bit like that tempting the Lord thing Jesus refused to do. There may be a time to wait on the Lord and stay out of His way by doing nothing, but one king of Israel heard a different message:

And the prophet came to the king of Israel and said to him, “Go, strengthen yourself; take note, and see what you should do, for in the spring of the year the king of Syria will come up against you.” (1 Kings 20:22)

This king was told to do something. Get up, prepare, write a plan, and get going because an attack is coming in the spring! We too may face an attack in the spring and our need for preparation may be great. However, since we are picking out examples from the history of Israel, how about this one?

"You will not need to fight in this battle. Position yourselves, stand still and see the salvation of the LORD, who is with you, O Judah and Jerusalem!’ Do not fear or be dismayed; tomorrow go out against them, for the LORD is with you.”

This one sounds like a stand still and do nothing sort of message. Which are we to follow? What both messages have in common are instructions from God. To gain those instructions, someone came to the Lord and asked. Our first to-do may be to ask Him what to do.

Our prophets, preachers, and teachers in Christ may not have but one solution that fits every problem we face, and that is to bring it to God. Sometimes we hope that God will give us a battle plan of specific steps and He tells us to stand still and watch His work. Other times, we look for a rest while He does the work, and God tells us to get off the couch and start doing. My best advice for our problem solving is to place an 'Ask Him' at the top of every to-do list, battle plan. or solutions guide. Then, of course, do what the Lord says to do!

It's later now, but it still feels early...
Bucky

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