The Problem with Presumption – Rom. 9:19-29
People who presume to know what is best for them are often mistaken.
Illustration:
Take for example the man who presumed that he knew which plane to board when he wanted a quick 50 minute flight from Los Angeles to Oakland, California. However, after two hours in the air he asked the flight attendant why it was taking so long to land in Oakland. The stewardess disappeared for a moment and called the pilot about a man who might pose a threat to the safety of all those on board. Before the man knew it he was handcuffed and put in the back of the plane. 12 hours later, the man learned that he was in New Zealand. After serious questioning, the man confessed that he misunderstood the New Zealand pronounciation of the capital of New Zealand, Auckland for Oakland. Even though it turned out to be an innocent mistake, the man’s faulty presumption landed him and many others in a heap of trouble.
Let us examine some of the problems of presumption about God and His will for our lives:
1. Many people forge ahead with faulty presuppositions about God and His will for our lives. In our text today we learn that God overrules all the behavior of people and nations with His sovereign power. His ways are higher than our ways and His thoughts are higher are than our minds can comprehend. Who has known the mind the of the Lord that we should presume to instruct Him? For from Him and and to Him and through Him are all things. Job had to confess how little he knew about God and how guilty he was in presuming upon God when he wrote, “Lord, now I know you can do all things and no purpose of yours can be thwarted.” (Job 42:1,2)
Application: God has total right to do whatever He wants to with us and our situations. Even when we are tempted to presume that we have the right to become bitter about the unfairness of our circumstances we should remember that He is the Potter and we are the clay. Let us ask the Lord to mold us and make us after His will while we are yielded humble and still.
Illustration:During the Battle of the Wilderness in the Civil War, Union general John Sedgwick was inspecting his troops. At one point he came to a parapet, over which he gazed out in the direction of the enemy. His officers suggested that this was unwise and perhaps he ought to duck while passing the parapet. "Nonsense," snapped the general. "They couldn’t hit an elephant at this dist--." A moment later Sedgwick fell to the ground, fatally wounded.
Today in the Word, August 30, 1993.
2. Some people may presume that if God is sovereign than why does He allow suffering in the world? God’s ways are perfect and all of His ways are peace. He alone has the right to fashion us after His grand purposes in processes that only He may understand. Moses wrote in Deut 29:29, “The secret things belong to the Lord our God, but the things are revealed to us (His will) are to us and our children forever that we may observe all the words of this law.”
The Lord reveals enough information to us so that we can complete His perfect will for our life. Do not presume that you must understand why things happen to you since it is not necessary to understand everything in order for us to do God’s will.
Illustration:
In today’s culture, we find it difficult to wait for anything. We grow impatient waiting for an elevator. We anxiously pace while waiting for a phone call. We can start acting like caged animals waiting in line at the store. On the highway, we quickly pass one car, just so we can pull back into the right lane to get off at the next exit. At a popular restaurant today, you’ll be given a timer at lunch to prove that they can serve you lunch in 15 minutes. Even credit applications have been sped up, so that Citibank even has a 15 minute mortgage approval. In this culture of hurry up, Jesus invites us to come apart and rest awhile.
Rev. Carla T. Powell, "Come Apart and Rest A While"
Application:
When you are tempted to get presumptuous with God and start asking why certain things are happening to you remember the words of the old hymn and make it your
Song: prayer, “Simply trusting everyday. Trusting in the homeward way. Even when my faith is small. Trusting Jesus that is all. Trusting as the moments fly. Trusting as the days go by. Trusting Him whate’er befalls. Trusting Jesus that is all.”
You may not understand everything now but by trusting and obeying the Lord in what He reveals to you today, you will be blessed and led in ways that are pleasing to the Lord and in that you may feel comfort.
3. God allows certain sandpaper people to come in to our life for His sovereign purposes. He is still able to work all things together for good as long as we love Him and fit into His plans for our life. (Rom. 8:28,29)
It may not seem like a good thing to us at the time, but be assured that God’s sovereign purposes will help mold you more into a Christ-like person. Allow the sandpaper people around you to smooth off the rough edges of your character. Let the vexating people in your life to refine you more into a patient, loving and complete individual. God uses all kinds of difficult people in your life to help you become more mature.
Do not resent people who seemed to get under your skin since God can use these people to bring you to higher levels of spiritual maturity in ways that nothing else could.
4. Do not demand to understand why you are experiencing such difficulties. The Israelites unreasonably presumed that they could question God and His chosen leaders without submitting to the sovereign will of God. When we are willing to let sadness, adversity and hurt be processed in our lives we will see that God is able to utilize all hardship in ways that will bring us more into a Christ-like character.
Application: Accept what may seem incomprehensibly difficult so that God can work through the earthquakes, wind and fire through His still small voice of calm.
5. Be assured that God’s sovereign will is always wise, righteous and merciful. Come boldly to the throne of grace so that you may obtain mercy and find grace to help in your time of need. (Heb. 4:15) Know that we do not have a high priest who cannot sympathize with the feelings of our infirmity but was in all points tempted like as we are yet without sin.
Example: Know that Jesus had to suffer terrible indignities for the sake of God’s sovereign will. Must Jesus bear the cross alone and all the world go free? NO there’s a cross for everyone and there’s a cross for thee. Consider Him who endured such sufferings of sinners against Himself so that you do not grow weary and lose heart. (Heb. 12:1-3)
Application: Often, the reasons that people get bitter rather than better is that they are unwilling to accept the weight and pain of carrying their own cross as Jesus did for us.
6. Praise God for His sovereign ability to control all things for His greater purposes. Allow God’s greater will to be carry out in a broader way that you may not be able to understand at the time.
Example: He allowed Joseph to be imprisoned in Egypt for 18 years before He revealed to everyone that God can use the wrath of man to praise Him. At the end of the book of Genesis in 50:20 Joseph summarized a great lessons about the sovereignty of God that we all need to appropriate when he said to his brothers, “You meant it for evil, but God meant it for good for the saving of many lives.” God used Joseph’s imprisonment to save the nation of Israel from a great famine.
Application: Only God’s sovereign and providential eyes knew the need for Joseph to undergo such suffering for the sake of the greater good.
7. Praise God for His sovereign characteristics and attributes. When you are committed to praising God in good times and bad times you will be less likely to presume upon God by questioning him in tough times.
Application: Glorify the Lord in song, in prayer and in your personal devotions as a preventative medicine for presuming on God when things do not go your way. You will find you will be less likely to grow angry or to worry when things happen that do not make any sense at the time.
8. Do not take criticisms or disappointments too personally. Know that God will give you sufficient grace for whatever hardship you may have to undergo. Remember, Paul, the writer of this letter, had to bear up under a terrible thorn in the flesh, but he wrote, “When I am weak than I am strong, the less I have the more I depend on Him. For His grace is sufficient for me.” (2 Cor. 12:9,10)
9. Know that your heavenly Father knows best.
Example: Back in the 50’s there was a popular showed starring Robert Young called, “Father Knows Best.” The whole point of the show was to explain that even though children do not agree with their earthly father they need to resign themselves to the fact that often our father knows what is best. In a greater way we need to rest in the fact that our heavenly Father always knows what is best, not just for us as individuals but also for our church, our nation, our school, and our community and our world.
Example: Remember the song, “This is my Father’s world. And to my listening ears. All nature sings and round me rings, the music of the spheres. This is my Father’s world, why should my heart be sad.”
10. There are many unscriptural presumption on the news that often tempt us to question God’s sovereign wisdom and control. These presumptions are not only unwarranted but also self-destructive. God has the right to judge, punish and discipline according to His greater purposes and timetable. I know that the Lord does all things well because He is good all the time, great is His faithfulness. He is always true to His loving character regardless of the look of things on the surface.
11. God allows resisters like Pharoah and Osama Bin Lama to live since He has the right and the power to use them for His purposes. God’s Almighty hand is not too short that He cannot use the wrath of man to praise Him. God gives all people the freedom to choose good or evil, but He reserves the right to utilize everything for His greater kingdom purposes. God foreseeing the sin of Pharoah, Hitler and Osama Bin Lama determined to make the wrath of man to praise Him.
Example: God overrules people like Pharoah so as to redound to the effecting of His will in the end. We may not understand all of the workings of God but we can be 100% confident that His character is just, truth and loving. God is always consistent to act according to His character and will always work all things together for good for those who love God and to those who are called according to His purpose.
Application: This applies not only to individuals but also to families, to institutions and to nations. We just have to trust and obey God regardless of the perplexities of every situation knowing that God always has the liberty to do whatever He wants, with whomever He wants and however He wants. He is the only sovereign God to whom all worship, honor, glory and power is due.
Application: Let us spend less time presuming upon God by questioning why things happen. Give more time praising God for His ability to turn seeming tragedies into His ultimate triumphs.
Concluding Illustration:
In 1912 the "unsinkable" Titanic was launched in Liverpool, England. So haughty was the hoopla surrounding the Titanic’s safety and structural integrity that it caused great anxiety in the heart of one God-fearing woman, whose family was unexpectedly transferred onto the gigantic liner for its maiden voyage. The woman was the mother of seven-year-old Eva Hart, who recalls that her family was saved from tragedy because of Mrs’ Hart’s spiritual convictions. Throughout the voyage, Mrs. Hart stayed awake at night waiting for disaster to strike, and thus was able to move her family to an upper deck almost immediately after the ship collided with an unseen iceberg. Because of her vigilance, the family did not join the 1,500 others who died that night.
After reading the shipbuilders’ claims, Mrs. Hart believed--and so stated--"This is flying in the face of God!"
Today in the Word, July, 1989, p. 8.
