“Would that they were wise, that they understood this,
That they would discern their future!
“How could one chase a thousand,
And two put ten thousand to flight,
Unless their Rock had sold them,
And the Lord had given them up?
“Indeed their rock is not like our Rock,
Even our enemies themselves judge this.”
Deuteronomy 32:29-31
Unless… Oh this is such a huge word! As I study the Scriptures and learn to teach them to the children… God has brought to my eyes the importance of the focus on these little words… like “unless”
He has led me to explain and define these big words to them… so that they are not foreign to them as they grow and continue to read and study the Scriptures on their own, but as for the focus in the lessons… God has opened my eyes to how important it is that I teach them to not overlook the obvious. Every week he has me to point out the but, the in, the if, the and… They won’t get boggled down and overwhelmed by the words they cannot yet pronounce and understand as long as in their minds and hearts and eyes they are searching for these small, easy to read, and follow words. These words are key and these words they know and understand. Most have already been studying them, even in secular school. I may not be able to rescue the public school system, but I most certainly can learn how to take advantage of what the public school system is teaching and use it to open our kids eyes to the truth of the Word of God.
So today we come to the next unless in the Word of God… at least according to the NASB.
How can one chase away a thousand?
How can two cause ten thousand to run?
UNLESS…
How many times do we stand before a situation, before an enemy, and we see no way to win. How many times do we know that God has called us to a situation, to stand before an enemy, and yet we shrink back in fear and contemplation… having no faith to go… fearing we would fail. How many times have we said, I wish I could, but I can’t now… maybe later… maybe after I get this in order… maybe after…
Come now, you who say, “Today or 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.
James 4:13-17
This passage in Scripture is often used as disclosure after we have made plans. I often say it myself. I have plans. I have goals. I have hopes. I have dreams. Yet, I know not what my future holds, I only know the One who holds my future. So I make my plans, but with a disclosure to myself and others, that they are “if the Lord wills“
However today, I want us to see the flip side of this passage.
What are you putting off that God has called you to do for fear that He will not come through for you? What is in your heart to do, yet you say, well maybe tomorrow, maybe next year, maybe one day… yet you know that you know that it is God that has put it in you… and you are disobeying His Word, His written, recorded Word, His Living Word inside you, the unction of His Spirit dwelling in you… by your unwillingness to step out in faith.
I have lost count of the times I have shared something… whether it be about homeschooling, about being a stay at home mom, about taking Bible Study, about praying, about speaking out and up in an unwelcome situation and time… and I have heard, “oh I wish I could… but I can’t…” for whatever list of reasons.
It is not about, nor is it ever about, what you can or cannot do. It’s about knowing what your God can and cannot do.
What can He do?
For nothing will be impossible with God
Luke 1:37
If nothing is impossible, then that means all things are possible.
What can He not do?
In the same way God, desiring even more to show to the heirs of the promise the unchangeableness of His purpose, interposed with an oath, so that by two unchangeable things in which it is impossible for God to lie, we who have taken refuge would have strong encouragement to take hold of the hope set before us. This hope we have as an anchor of the soul, a hope both sure and steadfast and one which enters within the veil…
Hebrews 6:17-19
God cannot lie. It is impossible for God to lie. Which means if He said it… He backs it.
I have a friend who knew that God was calling her to stay at home with her child and to homeschool him. However to do so would require a major sacrifice to the family finances. She had been the main bread-winner always. She attempted to do both. Homeschool and continue to work full time. However that was only half-way obedience… which is really disobedience.
Finally, her and her husband, chose to step out on faith and obey what they knew God was calling their family to do.
She had a job, that the enemy had convinced her would cause a company to fall apart if she left. She carried guilt about leaving them and she carried guilt about not being their for her child. She was stressed and guilt ridden and confused and hurting and just plain tired.
She shared with me not long ago, that after she turned in her notice after training her replacement, she realized that her company did not miss her at all… and it hurt her feelings a little to come to this realization.
No, her company did not miss her at all… but guess who had missed her like crazy… her husband and her sons. They had not even realized how much they had missed her. Yes, she might have been replaceable at her company… but she is irreplaceable to her family.
Oh moms and dads, husbands and wives, even if your job is in the ministry… your place there is replaceable… my husband and I went through a time at our church, when we felt the Lord might be moving us… at first we thought how could we go? Look what we do there? What would happen to these, to this, if we moved… but God opened our eyes to the fact that if He called us to move… He would fill those and that… we weren’t doing it anyway… we were simply the vessel.
I realized I needed this time of searching for many reasons. One was to help me realize that my first priority is my husband and my children. My first priority is to show the love of Christ to them… and then to my community… and then to the world. My Jerusalem was not the city I lived in… but the house I lived in and the people within its walls.
Ladies, Gentlemen, men and women of God… do you know the right thing to do, yet you do not do it? This is as much a sin as doing all the wrong. Is God calling you to do something that makes no sense right now to do it… yet you know it is God?
Will He not keep His Word?
Will He not provide as He has promised?
Will He not clear a path for the purpose He has planned?
Your life is but a vapor and then it is gone… today’s opportunity is not promised to you tomorrow. Don’t miss it because you refuse to trust your God. If opportunity is knocking at your door… answer it beloved. Answer it.
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Read more in the Unless Series here: Unless Series