Sermon Snippets

I'm sure most of us have heard the clever, semi-profane axiom about what assuming does. While the Bible doesn't put it quite like that, it does make a strong case concerning the dangers of assuming.

Proverbs is littered with it's own axioms meant to show just how bad assuming and presuming can be. Proverbs can certainly be very deep and theological, but this is just another example of how practical and real it can get in this compilation of the sayings of Solomon.

A couple of my favorites that I'll spend some time on tomorrow are 21:2 and 20:24. There are certainly many ways we can fall into the trap of assuming in life, but these two encompass two of the most common mistakes we make. 

21:2:
A person may think their own ways are right,
    but the Lord weighs the heart.

Here we are warned about assuming we know what is best and right about ourselves. We can easily fool ourselves into thinking we are doing something for the right reasons and we can easily deceive ourselves into believing what we want is what is best in a given decision.  Unless we evaluate our thoughts, desires, and heart through the lens of Scripture, we can easily trip ourselves up.

20:24: 
A person’s steps are directed by the Lord.
    How then can anyone understand their own way?

Our thinking about the future is another common area where we can let ourselves assume too much. In William Ernest Henley's famous poem, Invictus, he defiantly concludes: 

  

It matters not how strait the gate,

      How charged with punishments the scroll,

I am the master of my fate,

      I am the captain of my soul. 

 

Proverbs begs to differ. As does James 4, which states

 

 ¹³ Now listen, you who say, “Today or tomorrow we will go to this or that city, spend a year there, carry on business and make money.” ¹⁴ Why, you do not even know what will happen tomorrow. What is your life? You are a mist that appears for a little while and then vanishes. ¹⁵ Instead, you ought to say, “If it is the Lord’s will, we will live and do this or that.” ¹⁶ As it is, you boast in your arrogant schemes. All such boasting is evil.

We are not the master of our fates, that God's prerogative. And to assume other wise is to risk disaster, disappointment, and difficulty. We must entrust our plans to God and allow him to captain our souls.