HAVING YOUR WAY WITH GOD

Intro — Paul Manafort was arrested for his illegal dealings that included bank fraud, mail fraud, money laundering, tax fraud, and tax evasion, even operating as a foreign agent. Manafort even served as a consultant to dictators and oligarchs in order to help them get elected to their positions. it is unclear how much he was actually paid while fulfilling these duties but the federal officials who tracked his expenditures found that he owed one of the oligarchs $17 million dollars, owned one home in New York City, another in the Hampton’s, and had spent $1,369,655 on clothing alone.

At the knowledge of such information concerning the lucrative salaries and luxurious lifestyles of these cash craving criminals we cringe. We become incensed and sometimes we even develop an “if you can’t beat them, join them” mentality. Some are eventually influenced to follow them down the path of illegality, and why not? Most people have embraced, to a large degree a life of honor and respectability, only to see those plaudits demeaned by the ubiquitous acceptance and socio-economic escalation of the most nefarious people among us. Aristotle believed the mankind is equipped with a special emotion, implanted in our nature, which causes us to “fret” when we witness undeserved prosperity. The Greek word he used is -νέμεσις- we say nemesis, therefore a nemesis is one who brings about divine retribution, an avenger, if you will. This is why Paul wrote in Romans, “Vengeance is mine saith the Lord, I will repay.”

Christians have the same desire to be financially independent with the ability to control our own destiny, at least where money is concerned. We sometimes act as though God only controls certain aspects of our existence, that God knew what to do in the case of our eternal souls but was at a loss to manage our temporal condition.

I. Do Not Fret v.1

The English word used by the King James translators means ‘to devour’ but the Revised Standard Version uses a word that gives the sense of being vexed or agitated. Don’t let what the world is doing eat at you to the point where it is consuming you. I know people who won’t watch the news because they complain that it’s all bad.

II. Trust Him v.3

It means, literally, “on Him.” Stop thinking that you don’t handle every contingency that the plan is going to fall through. God will do what you cannot.

III. Delight in Him v.4

The fact is some of us can’t be happy with God because God has yet to come around to our way of thinking. We keep waiting for God to see things our way and that is not how it works. we are to delight in the things that please God, not us.

IV. Commit to Him v.5

There is a proverb that says that we should keep our promise even if it inconveniences us. Paul tells Timothy that there are some things that he should follow and other things he should flee. He said to make sure you teach sound doctrine but flee from the very appearance of evil. Doing the right thing is sometimes the hard thing to do and it can be very easy to do wrong but the Text exhorts us to commit to His way.

V. Rest in Him v. 7

Literally, “Be silent to the Lord.”…and wait. We read in Exodus, Numbers, and Deuteronomy about the “murmurings” of the Israelites. They want to be free and then they wanted food; and then they wanted meat, and then they wanted water, and then they wanted to go back to Egypt… your parents and your grandparents would sometimes say it like this, “Boy if you don’t go somewhere and sit down!”

Not only does he say to rest but then he says, “Cease from anger.” I know you want to do something about this evil but God says that He has a beat down that is better than your beat down.

We can rest because we don’t see what God sees. To us, it appears that this sad situation will never end but you simply need to rest and let the Lord have His way, in His time. The text says, “For yet a little while, and the wicked shall not be:”...