Various Verses
Do you want to engage in a spiritual exercise that almost for sure will leave you feeling a little bit convicted? Ask yourself this question. “How often to I claim to trust in the sovereignty of God, and His plan for my life?” Think about it, then ask yourself this.
“How many times do I question that plan and that sovereignty because it isn’t what I want to say, hear or do?”
How often do you feel God directing you a certain way and your response that direction is, “Yeah, but…”
“Yeah, but God I don’t need to stop drinking, I have it under control.” “Yeah, but God I know I need to be in church every Sunday but it’s the one day a week that I have to myself.” “Yeah, but God I know I should make time to pray, and study Your Word but do you know what time I’d have to get up every morning to do that?”
God’s plans for us are awesome until they’re not, right? Until they call us out of our comfort zone or present us with something that we don’t see as reasonable, logical, or practical. The good news is that we’re in good company as it relates to this struggle.
In the Old Testament Book of Genesis, The LORD tells Abraham that his wife, Sarah will give birth to a son and that the descendants of that son will be innumerable. Abraham’s response? “Yeah, but God, my wife can’t bear children.” When Abraham’s wife Sarah hears this news, her response? “Yeah, but Abraham you and I both know I can’t bear children. How about you sleep with my handmaid Hagar and let her have this son that God’s promised?” (Pssst…God doesn’t need our help to make His plans come to fruition…)
The good news here – and every time we give God a “Yeah, but” – is that He still accomplishes what needs to be accomplished. We aren’t capable of derailing God’s plans. Sarah does get pregnant by Abraham and in time along comes Isaac. And from Isaac comes the bloodline that will bring forth a Savior.
In the New Testament, Luke, chapter 18 starting in verse 18 we see this rich young man come to Jesus wanting to know what he must do to get into Heaven. And Jesus, sensing that this brother may like the idea of Heaven but may not understand how to get there tells him, “Obey the commandments.” And the young man is so. Pleased with himself! He tells Jesus, “Jesus I’ve obeyed the commandments my whole life!” And Jesus tells him, “Man, that’s awesome. Now all you need to do is sell all your belongings, give the money to the poor, and come follow Me.”
The young man replies in the quiet of his heart, “Yeah, but Jesus. I have so much really cool stuff. I can’t sell my stuff.” And the young man walks away. Sad. Sad over the impossible to imagine prospect of giving up his material goods for a chance to walk with the living, breathing Jesus.
Now, understand that in both these cases resistance to God’s plan didn’t lead to condemnation. Abraham remained faithful to the LORD as did Isaac. The rich young man doesn’t denounce or reject the Lord, He simply struggles as we do with the demands that following Jesus at times places on us.
So, listen. “Yeah, but” moments happen, and they don’t reflect a steadfast faith. But what they can do is offer us a wakeup call that draws us nearer to Jesus and makes it a bit easier to trust in His plan. When we do that, Jesus is glorified, and we are blessed in a mighty way by His grace and mercy.