Taking Things For Granted

IOI CHRISTIAN MORNING MEAL

TOPIC: Taking Things For Granted

This is what many so-called “righteous” church people fall into: “He says to Himself, ‘I shall not be moved; throughout all generations I shall not be in adversity.’” This is the proud, arrogant, wicked man that we all despise.

He thinks that nothing is going to happen to HIM: “I shall not be moved … I shall not be in adversity.” Other people may suffer, but HE is not going to! This person takes for granted that suffering and difficulty is only for others — nothing is going to happen to him!

This is just what God condemned in Isaiah 56:12; that there were those who said, “tomorrow will be like today, only more so.” It is a proud and arrogant attitude; nothing is going to happen to US — maybe someone else, but not US.

This is ungodly pride. Who are we that we should avoid all trouble? Of course we are subject to the frailties and difficulties of all flesh. We are foolish if we do not think that we are.

So often we presume on tomorrow, and what we will have, and be able to do.
Again, I will admit to having done this myself.
I had just not envisioned those things even as a possibility. And yet it was. Maybe I didn’t say it consciously, but subconsciously I was thinking, “tomorrow will be like today, only more so.” But it wasn’t.

And so often it is that way. We think that things will always stay the same as they are now — but they rarely do. We should put on a heart of wisdom, and of humility, and recognize that we are subject to the same frailties that everyone else is.

Brethren don't get me wrong, the attitude espoused in this verse sounds like some of the “word faith” people: just say “I shall not be moved; I shall not be in adversity” and you won’t! Just believe God will prosper you. But it is also very presumptuous — and very wrong.)

So much of the borrowing that people do stems from this very attitude: we borrow for homes and cars and other things, assuming that we are always going to have the same job, the same health, the same income, the same circumstances that we do now. But how often, in reality, does that presupposition turn out to be false? Tomorrow is NOT “like today only more so”;
there are all kinds of unforeseen things that happen. We need to stop this attitude of presumption. Instead, we should heed God’s words in James 4:13-17:

“Come now, you who say, ‘today and tomorrow we will go to such and such a city and spend a year there and engage in business and make a profit.’ Yet you do not know what your life will be like tomorrow. You are just a vapor that appears for a little while and then vanishes away. Instead you ought to say, ‘If the Lord wills, we will live and also do this or that.’ But as it is, you boast in your arrogance; all such boasting is evil. Therefore, to one who knows the right thing to do, and does not do it, to him it is sin.”

LET US PRAY
IN JESUS NAME, LORD JESUS HELP US TO DAILY TAKE UP OUR CHALLENGES AND DO WHAT IS RIGHT.

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Good morning friends