When Will We Ever Learn?

Royal Priesthood, Holy Nation                                          Acts 1:4

When Will We Ever Learn?

by Robert T. Cooper

When are we going to learn to do what God says, when He says it, the way He says it? He doesn’t mean in a few minutes or when we get around to it. He doesn’t mean for us to find ways to improve on His idea. He just wants us to trust Him and follow His instructions.

1.      When He says to stay, stay. When He says to go, go.

At one time there were 500 who saw the resurrected Christ. Yet on the day of Pentecost, a holy day of obligation when all observant Jews were supposed to be in Jerusalem, there were only 120 in the upper room who received the gift of the Holy Spirit. Where were the rest? What might the Pentecost harvest have been had the other 380 been where they were supposed to be?

2.      When you are engaged in God-directed activity, do it in God’s power.

The hymn says, “The arm of flesh will fail you.” Yet we try to do things “for God” in our own strength. Why? Why do we fail to use God’s power when it is readily available to us? It can only be pride or lack of trust.

3.      Keep God’s Word in your heart, mind, and actions.

God the Father has spoken. God the Son has spoken. It is recorded in Scripture. It is recorded in nature and in history. Read it. Memorize it. Pray it. Meditate on it. Contemplate it. Practice it. Live it. Teach it.

I heard a story about a man who was impressed by the Holy Spirit to witness to a neighbor. Now this man needed to run to the post office, so he thought he’d stop by the neighbor’s house and witness to him while he was out running his errand. He told his wife what he was planning to do and headed out. Driving along, he saw his neighbor was mowing, but was nearly through, so the man thought he’d go on to the post office and stop on the way home.

When he came back by, the yard still wasn’t quite finished, the mower was still out, but no one answered the door. The man went home and told his wife how his good intentions had been thwarted. The wife said, “Oh, no! Did you not hear? The man had a heart attack in his front yard. He died in the ambulance on his way to the hospital.” The man was sorry he had not stopped to witness to his neighbor before going to the post office.

When are we going to learn to do what God says, when He says it, the way He says it?

For your comments: Have you had an experience when you did not do what God said and you were sorry?