… if it be Your will
I don’t try to hammer folks with the Bible. The Bible speaks for itself, and it states that people can see God’s truth in creation, so that not having read the Bible does not mean they are ignorant of being convicted about something they might feel uncomfortable with had they read scripture about it.
I’ll stick to judging my own sin, also known as falling short. God says to not judge another, and I believe we are still to use our brains and discern, but I am often stupid, and say things to others that are terribly critical. If I don’t, I might still think them, and that is wrong too.
In any case, my beef here is that there is a commonly used type of statement I’ve heard prevalently both prior to and during COVID-19, Shelter-in-Place, and that is, “We ARE going to do this.” or “This WILL be the profit we’ll make.” or “We WILL make this happen”, and self-will is a problem for me too.
Prior to Shelter-in-Place, I noted someone admirable in a professional, business capacity projecting progress, as we see often in the media, and they used language indicating the certainty of an outcome. Currently, during the quarantines, some make similar statements about finding vaccines and certain lifting of various restrictions.
In the context of the pandemic, it is perhaps easier to justify these types of statements. Staying positive can be very helpful in making progress and achieving greater strides against the virus, but in the context of stock shares rising pre-crisis, we are in danger of taking God for granted.
God loves us, and is not waiting for us to stumble so that He can crush us, but while I hate the negative side of COVID-19/Shelter-in-Place, I can’t help but think God will use this situation to bring about change, and getting our attention could be part of that.
Again, I am not free of sin, and casting stones would be both foolish and wrong, but I think it is important to say, “if it is God’s will…”, or if you don’t believe in God, have faith in good, but maybe use a small grain of salt with regard to what may occur. This is one man’s opinion based on:
13 Now listen, you who say, “Today or tomorrow we will go to this or that city, spend a year there, carry on business and make money.” 14 Why, you do not even know what will happen tomorrow. What is your life? You are a mist that appears for a little while and then vanishes. 15 Instead, you ought to say, “If it is the Lord’s will, we will live and do this or that.”
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