The bible tells us in Proverbs 21:31: "Do your best, prepare for the worst - then trust God to bring the victory."
Powerful, powerful words.
Life is hard. Life is difficult. Life is a battle.
All of our preparation for any situation in life is useless without God.
But even with God's help we still must do our part and prepare.
His control of the outcome does not negate our responsibilities.
If I am going to write a book, I must learn to write. If I go to another country as a missionary, I must learn the language.
God WILL accomplish his purpose and his plan for our lives, but we must do our part by being well prepared.
As I read what I just wrote, I realize that these are nice words, but very, very difficult to put into practice when you or I are walking through a time of difficulty.
In any given situation, in any given crisis, there is a tendency to want to quit, to give up, to throw in the towel.
Yet, we must persevere. We must keep on "keeping on."
Then we must prepare for the worst. This is NOT a lack of faith. A lack of faith believes that God's intervention accomplishes nothing. It means that, "if it's to be, it's up to me."
Planning for the worst means that I am going to do my best, working out every contingency there is, so that as I move forward with God's help, options are available to me.
And then I trust God to bring the victory.
Are you doing your best?
Are you planning for the worst?
Are you trusting God during this time?
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2 comments:
I also found that when I do my best AND plan for the worst, God will use me mightily in the lives of others. If God has given me the capability of pre-planning for disasters and calamities, and I do that, then God knows that He can use me to help those who need it the most. God gives us so many gifts and talents and opportunities to use not only for ourselves...in fact, He gives us all of these things in order that we may help others and do His work here on earth.
Two commandments: Love God, love people. Jesus summarized the whole of the law (and the Jews had what, 613 laws?) into these two things. If we use what God gives us freely and well, then we are showing our love for God as we give Him the glory and honor. If we use what God gives us unselfishly and whole heartedly, the we are showing our love for people (and God) as we are instructed to do.
Do your best...do not compare your best to the best of others. Remember the old woman who only had a couple of what we would call pennies to give...she gave her best and was recognized by Jesus as being worthy of honor for her faithfulness. It's not what you give, it's the heart from which you give it...give unabashedly, give faithfully, give without regard for recognition. God is good...He will recognize you in heaven for your humble work here on earth.
Love God, love people. Do your best in each of these...be prepared for the worst in that your efforts may be ignored or shunned or rejected by people--God will not ignore or shun or reject you...He will shower you with mercy and grace and love.
We serve such a mighty and wonderful God that I cannot express it all in words.
Know that I love all of you...no matter who you are. Those are God's words to us...and should be our words to each other. So, know that I love you all.
Yours in Christ
Jon
This is so true. Like you said, we must do our part and prepare. One of the things I hear most complained about from people is that, why isn't God answering my prayer? How come everyone else seems to have things come so easily to them? I personally have realized that we can't wait for God to just take care of business, we MUST do our part to take care of it on our own. I believe that if God's not answering a prayer for a reason, maybe we need to figure out what that reason is. Find the thing in our lives that that doesn't belong there and get rid of it. One thing comes to mind, kind of funny, kind of not. Don't steal the cable TV if you're waiting for God to answer a prayer! I really don't mean to make light of it, but hopefully it gives you a little insight into what I mean.
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