We’re enthusiastic for God’s work.
We want the church to be successful, for new converts to fill our pews, and to have our accounts flush with cash…
…no matter what it takes to achieve that end.
It’s worth it, right? Leaving our families behind while we head off on mission trip after mission trip. Visiting church families, even if our own needs their time with us. Giving in the offering even when our children do without new shoes.
No matter what it takes, we want the church to be successful, and no sacrifice is too great. Or, maybe, no manipulation is too devious.
Whoa, hold on, there. We don’t manipulate things to bring about success in the Lord. We model ourselves after the lives of our biblical forebears. We trust the promises of God to be yea and amen.
Let’s look at Jacob, one of the mighty men of the Bible. He was assured the promise of Abraham, that his seed would be as the stars in the heavens so that all the nations would be blessed.
The promise was Jacob’s. It would have come to him regardless, if he’d only waited. Instead, he got ahead of himself, decided to manipulate the situation to create the end he desired, and stirred up a hornet’s nest of animosity between him and his brother.
Genesis 27:28 reveals the ill-gotten promise:
“Therefore God give you of the dew of the heaven, and the fatness of the earth, and plenty of corn and wine.”
Jacob received all he was promised, but he’d tricked his father in pretending to be his elder brother Esau to receive it. Esau hated his brother for what he’d done (Verse 41).
There’s an honest and direct way to achieve success in the Lord’s work, and there’s a dishonest and manipulative way to achieve that same end. If we wait on God and move forward at his direction, there’ll be no conflict with the world. If we force our way down God’s path, we’ll stir a hornet’s nest, and we’ll leave black eyes all around.
If we want to get ahead with God, we must let the Lord be in first place. Only he knows where he wants us to go.
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Code: FGO.H.28.17b.vp.esv