(Psa 19:13) Keep back Your servant also from presumptuous sins; Let them not have dominion over me. Then I shall be blameless, And I shall be innocent of great transgression.
God has called us to live a life of faith. That means we are to trust in God for all things, especially when we can’t see the future or the reason of things. When we take things in our own hands we are in danger of the sin of presumption. This is where we try to force God to do our will. This is manipulation and God will have none of it. And that road’s end is disastrous. (Pro 14:12) There is a way that seems right to a man, but its end is the way of death.
Sometimes we want what we want and won’t take no for an answer. Israel balked at going into the Promised Land because of the giants. God had had enough of their complaining in the wilderness and told them they would not be able to go in and would wander for forty ears. The next day they attempted to enter and were pulverized by their enemies. (Num 14:44-45) But they PRESUMED to go up to the mountaintop. Nevertheless, neither the ark of the covenant of the Lord nor Moses departed from the camp. 45 Then the Amalekites and the Canaanites who dwelt in that mountain came down and attacked them, and drove them back as far as Hormah. At the end of the forty years this incident was recounted to Israel: (Deu 1:43) So I spoke to you; yet you would not listen, but rebelled against the command of the Lord, and PRESUMPTUOUSLY went up into the mountain.
If we don’t wait for God’s prompting in our faith-walk then we are in danger of presumption. At that point God will have to break our pride and show us that the source of our insistence stems from the flesh and not the Spirit. And God cannot bless the flesh! (2 Pet 2:10) . . . those who walk according to the flesh in the lust of uncleanness and despise authority. They are presumptuous, self-willed. . . (Rom 8:8) So then, those who are in the flesh cannot please God. How much better to say “Thy will” than to be self-willed.
Let’s let God choose for us instead of us choosing for ourselves. Remember the story of Lot and Abraham? Their herdsmen were quarreling, so Abraham asked Lot to take the land he wanted. Lot chose the area toward Sodom. After Lot went away with his family and herds, Abraham was left alone with God. God told him to look over the land and promised all that he saw in each direction would be his and the multitude of his descendants as a possession. Lot took a part of the land, but Abraham was given all the land. (Gen 13) God always gives His best to those who leave the choice with Him.
Let’s not trust our flesh but let God choose for us. This way always leads to the Promised Land!
Louie