Presumption

 "Come now, you who say, ‘Today or tomorrow we will go to such and such a city, and spend a year there and engage in business and make a profit.’ Yet you do not know what your life will be like tomorrow.  James 4:13-16....."But he (Samson) did not know that the Lord had departed from him." Judges 16:20

Sin kills. The evidence of this is seen throughout the history of the human race. The fruit of sin will always be death, both spiritual and physical. Even so, both within the church and without, we seem to easily make peace with a great deal of sin. For the church, one on which I want to focus upon today is the "sin of presumption." We may practice it more than any other, and be totally unaware of it, or more correctly, deceived concerning it.

I saw it defined as our presuming that He gives His approval to our actions or practices because we either assume we already have it, or worse, we don't think it needful to even inquire as to whether He does. This is widely seen in the life of the church and in the lives of those who comprise it. The examples are nearly endless, and I fear, all of us have been guilty of it. Perhaps even now.

James 4 gives a clear picture of how so many of us approach our day to day living. We assume that if we want something, and we see that something as "good," then surely, He must see it as so too. This plays out in so many of our choices, whether in relationships, work decisions and practices, where to live, major purposes, even where to go to church. We base our decision, our choice, upon how we feel about it, weighing the pros and cons and then following our feelings and thoughts. All the while, we presume that He is with us in all of it. After all, He wants us to be happy....right? In all of it, we never really sought His heart on it. If we prayed about it, it was mainly that He would bless what we had already decided to do. We have presumed upon God, and God will not be presumed upon. 

The consequences of this can be devastating. Marriages that are entered into apart from Him. Business endeavors, ministry direction, the stewardship of our resources. In all of them we assume His favor and act upon how we feel and what we want. The Bible is full of examples of this Hezekiah the King wanted to display the splendor of his possessions to the Babylonian emissaries, never asking God if he should, and so not realizing that they would take the report back to their king, whose kingdom would eventually conquer and enslave Hezekiah's. Yet none is more shocking than the actions of Samson. He was anointed of the Lord and had his favor, yet he spiraled steadily downward as he followed after all his lustful desires, always believing that the Lord was with him. Eventually, his sin was so severe as to cause His Spirit to withdraw from him, so deeply had he grieved Him. After being seduced and deceived by the Philistine woman Delilah, her countrymen came upon him. He arose to fight them off, as he always had, but found that His great strength was gone. The One who gave him that strength had withdrawn, and the great tragedy for Samson was that he hadn't even realized it. Where might such a tragedy being taking place in our lives, our ministries, and our church fellowships?

Presuming upon God may be the easiest and most deadly sin for us to fall into because we are so talented at assuming things about Him and about our walk with Him. We come up with our agenda, and then we assume He's with us on every point.....all the way to spiritual shipwreck. We find ourselves like Samson, bereft of our spiritual power and at the mercy of our enemy.

May each of us take the time to bring our lives, plans, goals, and aspirations before the throne of grace, where He, and not us, will pass judgement upon them. If there are areas where we have presumed upon Him and are presuming upon Him now, may we confess it, repent of it, and turn back from it. May we consecrate ourselves to His ways and not our own. May we live by the leading of His Spirit and not the leading of our fleshly desires, and above all, may we learn to discern the difference.

Blessings,
Pastor O