Do It


"But so that we may not offend them, go to the lake and throw out your line. Take the first fish you catch; open its mouth and you will find a four drachma coin. Take it and give it to them for my tax and yours." Matthew 17:27 (NIV)


Sometimes God asks us to do something we don't understand. It might seem unnecessary. It might seem crazy. Or it might seem like something God shouldn't need us to do because He is capable of doing it without our involvement. So why does He require our action?


When Jesus was asked to pay a tax, He told Peter to go catch a fish. Miraculously, the exact amount He needed was found in the mouth of the fish he caught. Peter had a moment where he had to either accept Jesus' methods or question them. In our limited human understanding it's easier to question, "Why didn't He just make that coin appear?" But Peter knew Jesus, and he knew he was better off to just do whatever Jesus had asked of him (Matthew 17:24-27).


Sometimes we have moments like Peter had. We stand there blinking, wondering if we heard Him right. In those moments we have to make a decision to just DO IT:

Deliberate

Obedience

Intentional

Trust


Certainly Jesus could have produced the amount needed in many different ways, but He required Peter to be involved. He required Peter to take action, just as He does with us at times.


When God showed my husband and I that we needed to begin tithing when what we wanted was to get out of debt, it didn't make sense to us at all. We had to simply respond with deliberate obedience and intentional trust.


When God challenged me to stick with my marriage when it seemed over, I wondered if He realized what He was asking. He wanted me to deliberately obey Him and intentionally trust Him. He didn't want me to look for the easy button. He wasn't offering a supernatural rescue. He needed me to walk through the process, learning lessons along the way. Instead of handing me a solution, He allowed me to be involved in it.


Is there something He is asking you to do that doesn't seem right, or normal, or natural from your human perspective? Are you ignoring His still small voice urging you to just trust and obey? Whether it's catching a fish or building an ark, you can rest assured that you are in good company. God has a plan—even when you can't see it. Sometimes you have to DO IT to reveal that plan.


Dear Lord, I want to learn to respond with obedience to Your requests. When I hear Your voice speaking to me, I want to willingly do it—whatever "it" is. Thank You for reminding me that sometimes You require me to be part of my own solution. In Jesus' Name, Amen.

Related Resources:
Join us for more Everyday Life encouragement

Learning To Live Financially Free by Marybeth and Curt Whalen

The Power of Prayer to Change Your Marriage by Stormie Omartian

For more from Marybeth, visit her blog as well as her resource page.


Application Steps:

In your journal, write about a time when God asked you to do something you thought wasn't necessary or was crazy. What was the result?


Reflections:

What is God asking you to do? How will deliberate obedience and intentional trust figure into your response?


Power Verses:

Ephesians 5:15, "Be very careful, then, how you live—not as unwise, but as wise, making the most of every opportunity, because the days are evil." (NIV)


© 2009 by Marybeth Whalen. All rights reserved.

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6 Comments:

Anonymous Anonymous said...

I'm struggling with being responsible for my Mom and her finances. I'm the youngest of 4 children and i wonder why me? Mom has the start of altimzer and she doen't belive there is anything wrong with her and boy is she gonna be mad when i have to find a place for her to live. I'm not sure god has called me for this but it has become my job cause i'm the one in her town. Your devoition touched me and reminded me to DO IT . Thank you!

Anonymous Anonymous said...

I wanted to say that God truly used the devotion to minister to me this morning. I was praying today to God that I want to get better in my walk with him concerning my prayer life, my finances and my physical life. I was telling the Lord that I just didn't know how to get it all under control, then when I opened up my email this morning I saw the daily devotion. I know that the Lord heard my cry, now I must seek him to find out what his plan is in how do get these things in order. Thank you!!!!

Anonymous Anonymous said...

Thank you. I think I'm going to make myself a little poster that says "Just DO IT" like Nike but with a new meaning :-) God has been telling me to wait on a job that has not said a word to me following our interview. It seems like the crazy thing to do - especially for someone that's as driven as I am. He calls me to not drive and to wait. Sometimes the hardest thing to do is step aside and do nothing and wait on the salvation of the Lord.

Blogger Grandma Lou said...

Hello I just started a blog with my devotional poems.

Anonymous Anonymous said...

I will pray for you all!

When I was growing up I had a pastor that had buttons made for our church. He had the words "TO It" written in bold across the front of the buttons. He said that he was tired of people telling him that they had meant to do something but they never got "around to it". So he decided to give everyone a "round to it" so now they could just do it. This has always stuck with me. Another quote that has inspired me is "The smallest deed is greater than the grandest intention."

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