Wednesday... Doing the if can make all the difference.

Psalm 132:11a (NLT), "The Lord swore an oath to David with a promise he will never take back."

Wednesday... Doing the if can make all the difference.

There are so many promises that God has made to us. But there is more to it than just the promise.

In Psalm 132:11a David writes, "The Lord swore an oath to David with a promise he will never take back." Now there is more to it and this is so important. The rest of the verse says the promise, "I will place one of your descendants on your throne." Now that was a great promise. One that a father would really appreciate. But verse 12 continues, "If your descendants obey the terms of my covenant and the laws that I teach them, then your royal line will continue forever and ever."

Doing the if can and will make all the difference.

Now earlier David says what he wanted to do. Verses 3-5 says, "I will not go home; I will not let myself rest. I will not let my eyes sleep nor close my eyelids in slumber until I find a place to build a house for the Lord, a sanctuary for the Mighty One of Israel." 

Now God said what he will do if but David's I will wasn't in God's plan for him to do so there was no if attached to David's want. Someone else was going to build the Temple. God didn't promise him that but God's promise to David had an if with it. But David's want was not God's want for him so there was no if attached to it.

Now there was another situation over in Matthew 26 where Jesus was having an emotional time from a human standpoint of having to do what God wanted and he needed help from his friends that was going to make a difference for them if they did what he asked. Now the deep prayer that Jesus was going through didn't change God's will for him but the disciples not doing what Jesus asked of them did have an if that would make a difference to them.

Verses 36-38 says, "Then Jesus went with them to the olive grove called Gethsemane, and he said, 'Sit here while I go over there to pray.' He took Peter and Zebedee's two sons, James and John, and he became anguished and distressed. He told them, 'My soul is crushed with grief to the point of death. Stay here and keep watch with me.'" Jesus needed their support but they also needed to do what he asked.

Verse 39 says, "He went on a little farther and bowed with his face to the ground, praying, 'My Father, if it is possible, let this cup of suffering be taken away from me. Yet I want your will to be done, not mine."

Yes, what he prayed is so important, the part about God's will. I know that David was in deep despair because he didn't built the temple but Jesus knew that he came to the earth to die. That was God's purpose but he needed help with the human suffering but three times he found the disciples sleeping instead of praying. 

Now if they would have prayed instead of slept it would not have made a difference in God's will for Jesus but it did make a difference in themselves and how they handled the situation. Yes, the praying with Jesus would have helped him with his suffering but the ifs in our lives make such a difference in and for us.

Verses 44-46 says, "So he went a third time, saying the same thing again. Then he came to the disciples and said, 'Go ahead and sleep. Have your rest. But look- the time has come. The Son of Man is betrayed into the hands of sinners, Up, let's be going. Look, my betrayer is here!'"

But in verse 56 Jesus says, "'But this is all happening to fulfill the words of the prophets as recorded in the Scriptures." Their praying wouldn't have changed that but the rest of the verse says, "At that point, all the disciples deserted him and fled." 

Earlier in verse 41 Jesus said why they needed to do what he asked. Why they needed to do the if of this situation. He said, "Keep watch and pray, so that you will not give in to temptation. For the spirit is willing but the body is weak."

If they would have spent time in doing what Jesus wanted them to do it would have made such a difference in how they handled all that was about to happen.

If we do what God wants it makes all the difference in our lives. It really, really does. Yes, doing the if can make all the difference. Yes, yes! #todaysbeginning