As I am sitting here it is a quiet Sunday morning. We are getting ready to head to church. It will be a blessed time of fellowship and more importantly worship of our Lord God. My thoughts this morning are wrapped in those and the things I have prayed for today.
Interestingly it has caused me to think and ask the why question. We all do it, we ask the why question because we sometimes don’t understand something that happened. So we say, why did that happen? A variation of the why question is, how did we ever get to this point? You see, we instinctively want to know why, how do things get to a certain point. Which leads to the question of if we find out it was the wrong decision we will make a different decision next time? Only time will tell and that is a topic for another day.
We can’t always know, but we can trust the One who does. In Psalm 139:1-3 it tells us that-
1 O Lord, you have searched me and known me!
2 You know when I sit down and when I rise up; you discern my thoughts from afar.
3 You search out my path and my lying down and are acquainted with all my ways.
God knows everything and knows it completely. Trust me, you will struggle to understand and will often ask why but rest assured God knows.
That does not mean that we cannot at times know the answer to our why question. Here is a very easy example for you today. Take a glass and begin filling it with water. If you don’t stop then the glass will overflow. Why? Because the glass is not large enough to hold the amount of water you have put into it. Now, this is a very simple example and I hope that everyone understands. It is simple you can see that the glass cannot and will never be able to hold more water than it is designed.
Many times we face the why question and the answer is not as quickly or clearly seen. There are often variables in the reason for why. It takes effort and examination to determine why. Even with the effort and time the answer is not as easily understood as we might have thought.
Here is an interesting thought. When facing the why question did you ever think about asking the what if question? If we are honest with ourselves we might have to admit we don’t ask that question enough and especially not at the right time. The right time is before we find ourselves saying, WHY?
As I was writing here the thought about the term due diligence comes to mind. It applies so well to this thought. Merriman-Webster online has this as a part of the defining of the term. It says that “Due diligence has been used since at least the mid-fifteenth century in the literal sense “requisite effort.” Centuries later, the phrase developed a legal meaning, namely, “the care that a reasonable person takes to avoid harm to other persons or their property”; in this sense, it is synonymous with another legal term, ordinary care. More recently, due diligence has extended its reach into business contexts, signifying the research a company performs before engaging in a financial transaction. This meaning may also apply to individuals: people are often advised to perform their due diligence before buying a house, signing a loan, or making any important purchase.”
The term commonly is used in relation to property but the term applies perfectly with any part of life. Using due diligence in our decision making process along with understanding historical perspectives can and often will provide us with the answers needed to make the best decisions.
Personally this is something we have always done in our life and marriage. We purposely work through the process of doing our due diligence in any situation. We have learned that in so doing we can and have avoided things that could have happened which would have not achieved what we were trying to accomplish. We have learned that there were things that really sounded or looked good. However, in doing our due diligence we found that the upside of the decision had too many downside possibilities. Sure we could have done it and it may have worked out, BUT then again maybe not.
I feel like that is where most people are today. In every part of their lives, it may or may not work out but they have done no due diligence. There is a very important part of life that people seem to miss giving the attention necessary. That is their relationship with God. God has done His part in sending a Savior in His Son Jesus Christ. He died for our sins, was buried and rose again. All that is necessary is to as Paul says in Romans 10:9-10 NKJV-
9 that if you confess with your mouth the Lord Jesus and believe in your heart that God has raised Him from the dead, you will be saved.
10 For with the heart one believes unto righteousness, and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation.
God has made a way and you need to, if you haven’t already, do your due diligence. Consider what God has done and what He provides to you. It is your decision. No one else can or will make it for you. If you have never accepted Jesus Christ as your Savior, I pray today is the day.
Once we have made that decision then there will be plenty of others we will need to address. We will need to do our due diligence to make the best decision we possibly can given what we are facing. This world is in a terrible place right now. Our county is much different than many of us grew up in and is changing quickly. I don’t really believe it is changing for the good in most cases but it sure is changing.
We all have decisions to make each day. Most only effect us or our families. Others though when the decision is combined with others can and will have profound effects upon lives now and even those in the future. We each must do our due diligence.
In God’s Grace,
Elbert Nasworthy
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