GOD GIVEN NOTS
Someone recently wrote to me about praying to God to remove all the "nots" in our lives. The have nots, can nots, do nots, may nots, might nots, could nots, would nots, should nots and the am nots that hold us back, such as, "I am not good enough."
This is the way I responded to this e-mail.
"That's okay, except some of those "nots" are probably put there by God, to steer us in the direction he wants to go. Scripture says he orders our steps. Scripture says he disciplines whom he loves. And look at Jonah. Jonah basically said I am not going Nineveh, I'm going to Tarshish. Then God said, no you're not, you are going to Nineveh. So, in order to erase Jonah's "not," God gave one of his own.
In Mark 14.36, Jesus prayed, "And he said, Abba, Father, all things are possible to You; remove this cup from me: however NOT what I will, but what You will." There's a positive not. Without that "not" no one could be saved."
Jesus could have said, "I am NOT going to die." Jesus could have ignored God's plan to bring humanity back to himself. But Jesus decided NOT to go by his own will, but to go by the will of Abba Father. And those of us who are in Christ have greatly benefitted from that "NOT my will."
The Bible is full of God-given nots. The first one was, "do NOT eat of that tree." We know what happened because Adam ignored God's not. Another not was, "do NOT have any other gods before." The nest was, "do NOT take the name Jehovah in vain." That just simply means to not use the name Jehovah for empty reasons. The next not was in regards to the Sabbath day. "Do not do any work on the Sabbath day." And there was a prohibition from forcing others to work on the Sabbath, whether animal or human. These nots are regarding our relationship to God.
The next nots are regarding our relationship with others. "Do NOT kill." "Do NOT commit adultery." "Do NOT steal." "Do NOT bear false witness against your neighbor." "Do NOT covet anything belonging to your neighbor." If people would be obedient to these God-given nots, our society would be much better.
What about nots in our own lives? Remember what I said about Jonah. He had a self imposed not that prevented him for going to where God wanted him to go. What happened? God turned him around. So, I believe that there are God-given nots in our lives that are simply used to steer us in the direction God wants us to be on.
So, what do we do about psychiatrists that tell us to remove those nots. Ignore them. Life is so much harder when we ignore God-given nots, and if we are Christians, God will take care of our own self imposed nots, as he did with Jonah. So the key to the nots in our lives is just be obedient to God, and he will take care of them. The Christian life is full of God-given nots. We should simply obey them, not try to remove them. Even the one at the end of the e-mail, "I am not good enough." Isn't it quite possible that God gave that not to prevent us from doing something he does not want us to do?
There is another problem. There are Christians that do not believe what I just said. I don't know how many times I said to a fellow Christian, "I can't do that." Their response is almost always, "Yes you can, you just don't want to." I believe God puts limitations in our lives to steer us on the path he wants us on. Not on the path that we want to be on, or the path others say we should be on. If we are a child of God, he will direct our steps.
There are several Scriptures that tell us that God directs the steps of his people. Psalm 37.23 says, "A man's goings [steps] are established of Jehovah; And he delights in his way." Proverbs 16.9 says, "A man's heart devises his way; But Jehovah directs his steps." And because God directs our steps, we should accept the nots he puts in our lives. And so should the judgmental Christians out there. There are those judgmental Christians that believe that because God established their steps in a certain way he must have done the same for others, and so they condemn the steps that God gave to others. God did not direct the steps of everyone to be farmers. But God establishes the steps of his people as he wills to benefit the whole body of Christ. We see this in 1st Corinthians chapter 12. So the eyes should not condemn the mouth. The mouth should not condemn the ears. And the ears should not condemn the brain. God puts all in the body as he sees fit to benefit the body.
So, what I am saying? If we are a child of God we should not be concerned about the nots in our lives because it is God who directs our steps, and it is probable that God put those nots there. Nor should others judge us for the nots that God puts in our lives, and so many do. And that's the real problem, isn't it? We do not like the nots because others don't. Well, we should not be concerned about what self-righteous, judgmental people say, as long as we are a child of God and seeking his ways and his truth. Let God direct your steps with those nots he gives us. After all, if we are a child of God, he will do that anyway as he did with Jonah.
Thank God for thank God for those God-given nots.
