What if?

This has been stirring in me for quite some time but I haven’t been sure how to put it into words. I finally got some clarity a few weeks ago as I left on vacation with my family. I told my wife a story after which she said “That will preach!” At that point I realized that it was definitely an on time word but was still not completely clear in how to fill in the gaps. Since then I have been praying and seeking the Lord, and the Holy Spirit has been doing just that, filling in the gaps. He has been causing me to wonder why we ask “what if?” and letting me know that I already have the answer to that question. Don’t worry I will share the story at the end of this and hopefully bring everything together.

Let me start with Noah. Genesis 6: 13 So God said to Noah, “I am going to put an end to all people, for the earth is filled with violence because of them. I am surely going to destroy both them and the earth. 14 So make yourself an ark… 22 Noah did everything just as God commanded him.”

Stop! Before you go on I want you to stop and think about this. God has just commanded Noah to build the first ocean liner and Noah just “did everything as God commanded him.” What I want to know is if the person who penned this to paper, Moses, skipped some important details in this story. Really, he just “did everything God commanded him”??? If it were me I would have been standing there saying “A what? You want me to build a what? I don’t even know what an ark is. Besides, what if it doesn’t work?” Yes, that’s right, I would question if what God had spoken to me was real and if it would really happen. I would have asked over and over again “what if”.

From the only history book that really matters we learn what happens from this point. Noah, against some very strong ridicule, builds that ark and God truly does save him, and thus all humanity, from a flood. I again ask the question, “What if it hadn’t worked?”

Next, let’s talk about Abraham. He up and leaves his hometown, no questions asked, he just packs up and takes off. He doesn’t even know where he’s going, in Genesis 12: 1 The Lord had said to Abram, “Go from your country, your people and your father’s household to the land I will show you.” The land I will show you? Again I am thinking what if? What if something bad happens? What if I can’t sell this house I’m living in? What if I can’t find a job when I get to this “land You will show me”?

What about when God told Abraham to sacrifice Isaac. In Genesis 22: 3 it says “Early the next morning Abraham got up and loaded his donkey. He took with him two of his servants and his son Isaac.” Do you know how many “What ifs” pop into my mind reading this story? The first one that immediately comes to mind is “what if I didn’t really hear the Lord?” Think about it, would the Lord really say that? Would he really tell me to sacrifice something that I had waited so long for? Surely it must have been the enemy putting thoughts in my head. I couldn’t really be expected to give that up, could I?

I have quite a few of these examples that I really want to discuss but I won’t completely break each of them down. I will let you derive your own “What Ifs” for each. There’s Moses going before Pharaoh. Really???? A stuttering, murderer is called to lead the entire nation of Israel out of Egypt and he has to go before one of the most powerful men on earth at that time. Don’t even get me started on all the things that happened leading up to and through the Exodus, or the time in the wilderness. Then, the story of Joshua leading the people across the Jordan, yeah, we are going to walk on dry land, or marching around a city 7 days in a row.

The book of Judges is filled with “what if” stories like Gideon and his “fleece”. It is one definite example of a man who actually asked the question. He had to have God prove to him not once but twice that He had really spoken.

The entire life of David was a sequence of “what if” events. When God told Samuel to anoint him as the next king can you imagine the thoughts that went through Samuel’s head? Then when David faced Goliath, if it had been me I would have immediately thought “what if these stones don’t do the trick?” Think about the time span of David’s life when Saul was chasing him around trying to kill him and David and his men couldn’t find a safe place anywhere. How about when he and his men lost all their families in Ziklag. I know I would have been thinking “what if this king business was all a mistake and my men kill me right here?”

I would like to take a deeper look at some of these “what if” examples in the life of Elijah. It is actually one sequence of events, over a three year period, that provide a number of times where, if it had been me I would have truly questioned what God was speaking to me. The first was when Elijah was told to go the king and tell him there would be three years of drought. I would have been really? You want me to tell the king what? What if I say that and it rains tomorrow? Then the drought does start, I would have started thinking “what if I starve to death now?” He goes to the lady and asks her for her last little bit of food, there are multiple “what ifs” there. What if she refuses? What if I didn’t really hear right and I eat her last sandwich and then we all starve? What if I give him my last bit of food and he lives but my boy and I die?

The story of Elijah continues with him surviving the drought and going back to face the king and all the priests of Baal. I can only imagine how much I would have been asking “what if?” What if they kill me as soon as I show up? You want me to put water on the alter and the sacrifice? What if it doesn’t work and I look stupid and they kill me? Then without a cloud in the sky, after three years of drought, he tells the king the rain is coming. What if it doesn’t? He prays and sends his servant, what if there are no clouds? Guess what, there were no clouds. Six times there were no clouds. I would have totally had a major case of the “what ifs”. What if I totally missed it and God is going to continue this drought?

The rest of the Old Testament is filled with stories where I would have asked “what if?” I could go on and on with them, stories like Daniel, Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego. That’s another favorite, in Daniel 3: 16 Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego replied to him, “King Nebuchadnezzar, we do not need to defend ourselves before you in this matter. 17 If we are thrown into the blazing furnace, the God we serve is able to deliver us from it, and he will deliver us from Your Majesty’s hand. 18 But even if he does not, we want you to know, Your Majesty, that we will not serve your gods or worship the image of gold you have set up.” They decided that they would answer the “what if” with it doesn’t matter we are doing it anyway.

Let’s skip ahead about half a millennium and look at some stories in the New Testament. Think about John the Baptist in the wilderness telling people to repent and baptizing them. If God just tells me to tell someone He loves them or do something for them I question “what if”. What if they don’t respond well? What if they get mad at me? What if God really didn’t tell me that? But there he was calling people out preparing the way for our Savior.

When Jesus called His disciples to come follow Him, if it had been me I would definitely have asked “what if this Jesus guy is just some nut case? He wants me to leave my livelihood and go where? What if we make people mad and they kill us all? What the heck is a fisher of men anyway?” Then He sent them out on their own, I would have thought “what if I can’t do any of the things He’s telling me to do?”

Jesus told the rich young ruler he had to sell everything he had and give it to the poor. I can imagine him thinking “what if I do that and then I never have any possessions again?” That probably would have been my thought and I may have done the same thing he did.

Then there was the time when Peter stepped out of the boat and onto the water. If it had been me I believe I would have thought “what if I sink?” I don’t think Peter thought that way, at least not at first. But when he let the “what if” in, he did sink.

I would like to tell one last story from the Bible. After Saul, who became Paul, had the Damascus Road experience he became blind. God sent a man named Ananias to him to heal him. Can you imagine being Ananias? You want me to do what? This man is killing Christians. What if he kills me? God wouldn’t send me into a situation that could end my life would He? At least those would have been my thoughts.

I would like to move ahead in time again, about 2000 years this time. In 2012 my maternal grandfather, J. T. McCracken passed away. My mother is the second oldest of 11 children and there are a very large number of grandchildren and great grandchildren, most of whom were at the funeral. At the start of the funeral the whole family filed into the church together in a very large “procession”. It was a pretty amazing site to see the legacy he was leaving behind. During the service my uncle began talking about his life. He told of when Grandpa was young he was definitely not a Christian. Within a few years of getting married, while living in Oklahoma with his wife and their first two children, he gave his life to Christ. Shortly thereafter he felt he was being called into the ministry, and, as I undoubtedly would, had the “what if” question. What if God wasn’t really calling him? Why would God call him to preach? He, like Moses, had a stuttering issue. Surely he was hearing wrong. I had heard most of this before and I had known that he had questioned but I never knew how much until my uncle told us the rest of the story. He said that my grandpa was at small airport and he actually said “God if you are really calling me make that plane crash.” And it did!

I am not advocating doing that, I am just using this story to illustrate the point I am trying to get to and hopefully I will. You will notice in the stories above that I have inserted the questions I would have asked if God had called me to take those actions. I am not sure if the people in those stories had similar thoughts. However, I am pretty sure that if they did most of them stepped out anyway, and they did so very quickly. I did refer to a couple stories in which they didn’t, which brings me to the story that I promised I would eventually tell.

My paternal grandfather, Bill Reynolds, was severely injured in World War II. He as on a PT Boat in the South Pacific and a bomb was dropped from a Japanese plane that just missed the boat. The bomb exploded on impact with the water sending shards of shrapnel into his body. One of the worst injuries was to his left arm. The shrapnel damaged tendons, muscles, and nerves in the arm and the doctors wanted to amputate. He begged them to let him keep it and they did. It did heal but he had very limited use of it including no use of the pinky and ring fingers on that hand and limited used of the other three fingers. The pinky and index fingers were drawn up into his palm and he could not straighten them out not even by pulling on them with his other hand. I tell you all of this to get to the main part of this story. In 1971 he went to a meeting where Kenneth Hagin was speaking. Kenneth Hagin was well known for meetings where people were miraculously healed and other things happened. In this meeting Mr. Hagin said that there was someone in the audience with a shriveled up left arm that God wanted to heal. My grandpa did not go up for healing, he did not have the man of God pray for him. After the service my dad asked him why he hadn’t gone up. My grandpa basically said he didn’t want to embarrass the speaker if he didn’t get healed. In other words he asked “What if it didn’t work?” My question and the question that started all of this is “What if it had worked?????”

That’s what I want to know from you, “What if it does work?” In the stories above, most did step out and I believe they got past the “what if it doesn’t” to the “what if it does” very quickly. Noah survived the flood. Abraham had a son and God provided a sacrifice. David killed Goliath, survived persecution, and became the king of Israel. My grandpa became a minister, raised a family the best he knew how, most of whom are serving the lord very fervently. He touched thousands of lives through his churches, and through his family. He never had a very large church but in the churches he had he touched lives and those lives touched lives and they touched many more. There’s literally no way of knowing how much of an impact he has had all because he stepped out. He got past the “what if”.

What is your “what if”? What is it, big or small, that you feel God is calling you to do but can’t get past the “what if it doesn’t work?” We ask what if because we are only looking at ourselves and what we can do. We think, yeah, I know God can do that but surely He can’t use me to do it. We don’t think He can do it through us and we stop and ask “what if I fail” instead of “what if He succeeds?” I am challenging you, I am challenging myself, right now, get past the “what if”. Step out and do what God is asking. Will you always get the results you want or expect? Maybe not, you will; however, get His results, and you will know that you did it. You will know that you heard God and stepped out in faith to do what He has told you. And besides, what if it does work?

Why Doesn't He Stop the Waves?

God has continued to speak to me about faith.  Specifically about trusting in Him no matter what the circumstances might say.  Kind of a continuation on the last post I made about certainty being the opposite of faith.

Take a look at Matthew 8 ²³ Then he got into the boat and his disciples followed him. ²⁴ Suddenly a furious storm came up on the lake, so that the waves swept over the boat. But Jesus was sleeping. ²⁵ The disciples went and woke him, saying, “Lord, save us! We’re going to drown!” ²⁶ He replied, “You of little faith, why are you so afraid?” Then he got up and rebuked the winds and the waves, and it was completely calm.  I had always read this passage as Jesus calling out His disciples for not having enough faith to quiet the waves themselves.  However, He asked “Why are you so afraid?”  He was not chastising them for not rebuking the storm; He couldn't believe that they didn't trust Him enough to know that He would protect them even in the middle of the storm.  He didn't have to “let” the storm even occur.  He could have rebuked it as soon as it started.  There are all types of scenarios but He chose to let it rage.  His disciples could have been asleep, resting in Him, just as He was resting in His Father but they chose to look at the circumstances, the created instead of the creator.

Reading again in Matthew 14: ²² Immediately Jesus made the disciples get into the boat and go on ahead of him to the other side, while he dismissed the crowd. ²³ After he had dismissed them, he went up on a mountainside by himself to pray. Later that night, he was there alone, ²⁴ and the boat was already a considerable distance from land, buffeted by the waves because the wind was against it.  ²⁵ Shortly before dawn Jesus went out to them, walking on the lake. ²⁶ When the disciples saw him walking on the lake, they were terrified. “It’s a ghost,” they said, and cried out in fear.  ²⁷ But Jesus immediately said to them: “Take courage! It is I.  Don’t be afraid.”  ²⁸ “Lord, if it’s you,” Peter replied, “tell me to come to you on the water.”  ²⁹ “Come,” he said.  Then Peter got down out of the boat, walked on the water and came toward Jesus. ³⁰ But when he saw the wind, he was afraid and, beginning to sink, cried out, “Lord, save me!”  ³¹ Immediately Jesus reached out his hand and caught him. “You of little faith,” he said, “why did you doubt?”  ³² And when they climbed into the boat, the wind died down. ³³ Then those who were in the boat worshiped him, saying, “Truly you are the Son of God.”  Again in this passage Jesus could have stopped the wind before calling Peter out into the water but He didn't.  Peter stepped out into the water and as he focused on Jesus he was walking on water.  Can you imagine that?  What must that have felt like?  To be doing something that only one other man in recorded history had or has ever done and that other man was the Son of God Himself!  Peter began to look at the circumstances and began to sink.  I don’t believe that it was the fact that he looked at the circumstances that he sank.  I don’t believe that Jesus rebuked him for looking at them.  Sometimes all we can see are the circumstances surrounding us.  I believe that as Jesus said “why did you doubt?”  He was saying, yes there was wind, yes there were waves, but I had you!  Isn't it enough to know that He has us?

I have gone through a lot of storms.  I have seen friends go through and have friends who are currently going through storms.  Some of these storms I wonder if I can make it, I sometimes have wondered how I made it.  I wonder if my friends can make it.  I wonder if I were in their shoes could I hold up as well as I see them holding up.  I often wonder “why doesn't God just swoop in and fix it immediately?”  I am not saying that God can’t do that.  I am not saying that God won’t do that.  I have seen it happen many times, miraculous moves of God, immediate restoration.  What I am saying is that in those darkest of times when things don’t happen in the way and the timing that you are expecting and all hope seems to be lost don’t ask yourself “what am I doing wrong?”  Don’t ask “has God forsaken me?”  What you should think is “I am going to go to the front of the boat and sleep with Jesus because he is in control.”  Choose to wrap yourself in the knowledge that He has already proved His love for us in that while we were still sinners He loved us so much that He sent His only Son to die for us (Romans 5:8).  

Another passage in which I often find rest “My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.” Therefore I will boast all the more gladly about my weaknesses, so that Christ’s power may rest on me. ¹⁰ That is why, for Christ’s sake, I delight in weaknesses, in insults, in hardships, in persecutions, in difficulties. For when I am weak, then I am strong. (2 Corinthians 12: 9 – 10)

It doesn't even have to be a storm. It can be something that you believe God has spoken to you, something He has put on your heart.  For example, my wife and I know that God has called us to adopt.  I continue to try to figure out God’s plan and wonder why He isn't doing something right now.  Another example, our family is at a point where our oldest son is getting ready to start his final year of high school and we wonder what God has for him.  Both of these things are good things but they can bring fear into my life.  Fear of the unknown, of failure, of how the heck are we going to pay for it???  I have to rest in the fact that He has already done it I just haven’t seen it yet, “the evidence of things not seen.”  I have to realize it is okay to have uncertainty of how, when, or where as long as I have complete confidence in who.


And lastly John 16: 33“I have told you these things, so that in me you may have peace. In this world you will have trouble. But take heart! I have overcome the world.”

What is Faith?

I would like to share a verse with you. I have a couple different versions so that you know that I'm not lying.  Just ponder on these for a few minutes.

Hebrews 11:1 NKJV
Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen.

Hebrews 11:1 NIV
Now faith is confidence in what we hope for and assurance about what we do not see.

Hebrews11:1 NLT
Faith is the confidence that what we hope for will actually happen; it gives us assurance about things we cannot see.

I guess the real question I would like to pose is, what is the OPPOSITE of faith?

Think about it for a minute.

Who said doubt, fear, or something like
that?

Pause for dramatic affect...

How about Certainty?

I was challenged the first time I heard Pastor Steven Furtick of Elevation Church say this but as I have chewed on it over the last few weeks I have come to truly believe it.

If we are certain, we don't need faith.  If I am certain of exactly how, when, and where something was going to happen I wouldn't need faith in who is going to do it.  Faith is confidence of what is hoped for.  Hope means we don't know how or when or we wouldn't be hoping for it.  So we hope for it and then faith gives us the confidence in WHO!  I am confident in God, in His provision, in His ability.  I am not and cannot ever be certain of how,  when, or where or I would not need faith in Him.  I am definitely not certain of my own strength or ability.  All I can be is confident in Him and what He has called me to be and do.

I believe it is time to step out to do this thing. To do what God has told us to do and be confident in Him.  Do it now before He finds someone else to do it.