“No man builds without counting the cost.” Luke 14:28
“Lives are littered with ideas and tasks ambitiously initiated but never fully accomplished.”
My thoughts today are about “how God works.”
There is a risk and reward for every reward and risk. It is important to know what those are before beginning a new venture. Every endeavor has a cost connected to it. When you make your plans, you must consider those costs, making sufficient provision for the ones known and allowing extra margin for those possibly unforeseen.
Jesus illustrated this reality with the sound business practice of a builder, “No man builds without counting the cost . . to see if he has enough to complete it.” Luke 14:28. That is just old-fashioned common sense. Anything else would be foolish or irresponsible. There is little point in beginning a project without prior thought and sufficient preparation for adequate resources. Life and lives are littered with ideas ambitiously initiated but never accomplished. Those become a growing weight of incompletion that dampens enthusiasm and weakens confidence. Unfinished tasks can become habitual, producing an unsuccessful and unsatisfying lifestyle. Don’t let that be how you work.
Now, let’s consider how God works in your life. He has a divine and eternal plan specifically “to give you a future and a hope.” Jeremiah 27:11 NLT. I think God would responsibly follow His own advice to count the cost and complete the task, don’t you? Paul wrote, “Being confident of this, that He who began a good work in you will carry it on to completion until the day of Jesus Christ.” Philippians 1:6 NIV. At Creation, God saw all He had done and said, “It is good.” And He rested! On the cross, Jesus triumphantly declared, “it is finished;” God had counted the cost and completed the work of your salvation. Still today, that’s how God works!
When things are not going well for you as you naively thought they always would, and following Jesus is not as easy for you right now as when you first began, don’t indulge doubt or entertain second thoughts. The work of God in your life has not been abandoned; His plans have not been revised; His will and intentions have not changed.
Due to the accidental death of my father, Gayle and I abruptly found ourselves pastoring in Granite City, Illinois – 21 years old, married one month, and having finished just three years of Bible College. Oh, did I say I was pastoring the church in which I had grown up, the same church my Dad had pastored since I was six years old? To say I felt under qualified would be a gross understatement.
In my early struggles to cope, both with the tragic event in our family as well as caring for the church, God illuminated a liberating Scripture to my heart that changed everything I felt and feared, “God, who calls you, is faithful: He will do this.” 1 Thessalonians 5:24 NLT. It was liberating to stop feeling like “I had to do this for God,” and find instead that God was faithful to do this through me. The issue was never about my ability; it would always be about God’s faithfulness. Forty-eight years later, that is still true for me, and can be true for you.
Prayers not yet answered? Questions not yet resolved? Dreams not yet fulfilled? Needs not yet provided? Family not yet saved? Marriage not yet healed? God is not yet finished! God is still at work, in you and for you. “(God declares) the end from the beginning, and from ancient times things that are not yet done, saying, ‘My counsel will stand, and I will do all My pleasure.’” Isaiah 46:10 NKJV. See 1 John 3:1-3 NKJV.
My prayer for you today is that you will rely on God to do what He alone can do.