But If He Doesn't

        The Lords timing is impeccable. I have seen over and over the perfection of not only his timing, but also the sequence of his timing when teaching me things. I have had something on my heart that I wanted to share in hopes that maybe it will speak to someone else. But even if it doesn’t… it is still a testimony to his awesomeness so I am going to share it anyway.

        So sometimes there are things that the Lord teaches through other people that you never forget. For example, I will never forget the sermon when I was in high school that was taught by Stephen Kendrick about how we DON’T follow our hearts but we lead them (Proverbs 4:23) because the bible says that our hearts are desperately wicked (Jeremiah 17:9). So recently I have had two of those moments in time where the Lord spoke very clearly to me about something and I will just never forget it. In fact, I can’t get it out of my head. It has me checking my every motive.

      The first one was a Sunday when I was actually in Albany sitting in Sunday school. Steph (our Sunday school teacher) said something that wasn’t even really part of the lesson. She recalled the story of Shadrack, Meshack, and Abednego (sp??) when they were about to be thrown into the furnace. This is what they said…

      Daniel 3: 17 “If this be so, our God whom we serve is able to deliver us from the burning fiery furnace, and he will deliver us our of your hand, O king. BUT IF NOT, be it known to you, O king, that we will not serve your gods or worship the golden image that you have set up.”

      Now I have read that passage a million times. Trust me… but some how I missed that three-word phrase, “BUT IF HE DOESN’T”. Steph said it perfectly when she asked the question what is that “thing” for you that you are asking God for or asking God to deliver you from? What is that BUT IF HE DOESN’T thing for you? For some girls it may be “if he never provides a husband for me”, for some it might be “if he doesn’t heal my family member from X disease”… etc you get the point. What is that thing for you? Once you answer that part of the question you have to then ask yourself if you will be faithful to him and serve him regardless. BUT IF HE DOESN’T, I WILL still serve him because he is worthy. Man that just wrecked me and I let it sit for several weeks…

        So the second thing that really drove that first point home (remember I said the Lord always has a perfect sequence to things so that we really get it) was a few weeks later when we were studying the book of Job. Very similar setting to the first…in Albany…in Sunday school… Steph is teaching… and she read this quote out of the biography of Ron Dunn. This is what it said….

              "I believe the theme of this book [Job] is not "Why do the righteous suffer?" but "Why do people serve God?" Will a person serve God for nothing if there are no blessings attached or no payoff? . . . What if, after you have said, "I'm going to start tithing," you go bankrupt and lose everything. What about that? Will a person serve God for nothing? Is there such a thing as "disinterested piety"? In other words, is there such a thing as a person worshipping God without any interest in the blessings that might come? Or is it true that we serve God knowing that, if we do, He's going to bless us? It's easy to be good when the good have the goods. IT's easy to serve God when everything is going your way. But here's the question: Is God alone worthy of our service without any of His blessings?"

          The obvious answer to that question is a resounding yes! Like I said earlier I came to a point where I got it. We don’t serve the Lord because of the things we can give us. We teach our kids that about relationships don’t we? We teach girls that you don’t marry a man for what he can give you or how rich he is. You love and marry a man for who he is… for his character. Well, it is the same with God. We love him because of WHO HE IS because that ALONE is enough of a reason to love and serve him. God’s word says that he is I AM.

             Think about Job. Satan basically told God that Job only served God because of the things that the Lord had blessed him with. So God was like “Fine. Lets take all that away and you will see that he will not turn his back on me.” Can the Lord say that of us? Can he say, “Kaitlyn serves and loves me because of who I am not for what I give her.”?

              These two things I can’t get out of my head. They keep running over and over and I keep finding situations where they apply. The lord is worthy of our praise and love and worship because of who he is. That is how we can say BUT IF HE DOESN’T I will serve him.

           This was one of those Ah Hah moments for me. I mean I knew this but you know what I mean when I say I finally “got it”…Deep down. If you really asked yourself why you serve the Lord, what would your answer be?

               The incredible things is that even though the Lord doesn’t OWE us anything, and even though he is worthy of love and praise and affection just because of who he is, he DOES still bless us. He still answers our prayers. He has made promises to us that he will never break. HE GAVE HIS ONLY SON so that we can be FREE. Yes people… we are beyond blessed.

#knowhim #makehimknown #heisworthy #butifhedoesn’t #iwillalwaysservehimalone

until next time....