God Responds To Our Decisions
by Dan Jones, M.D.
Numbers 14:11-12;30-35
The LORD said to Moses, "How long will these people treat me with contempt? How long will they refuse to believe in me, in spite of all the miraculous signs I have performed among them? I will strike them down with a plague and destroy them, but I will make you into a nation greater and stronger than they."
Not one of you will enter the land I swore with uplifted hand to make your home, except Caleb son of Jephunneh and Joshua son of Nun. As for your children that you said would be taken as plunder, I will bring them in to enjoy the land you have rejected. But you—your bodies will fall in this desert. Your children will be shepherds here for forty years, suffering for your unfaithfulness, until the last of your bodies lies in the desert. For forty years—one year for each of the forty days you explored the land—you will suffer for your sins and know what it is like to have me against you.' I, the LORD, have spoken, and I will surely do these things to this whole wicked community, which has banded together against me. They will meet their end in this desert; here they will die."
God responded to the decisions made by the people of Israel. He needed strong people of faith to populate the chosen land. He wanted Israel to become a great nation. In order for that to happen, he allowed those who responded with a lack of faith to His challenge to remain in the desert another 40 years until that faithless generation died. Only the faithful Joshua and Caleb would remain of that generation to lead the people into the Promised Land.
In our lives, God provides a plan. But He loves us enough to allow us to decide what we will do. Based on our commitment to Him and His plan, God still responds. He wants to use us in His work, but he will fulfill His will and plan with or without us. He wants to bless us and prosper us, but gives us the choice to make a commitment.
Each time I have been able to understand and follow God’s will in any area of my life, he has blessed and prospered it. God placed in my heart a love for the Korean people. Our family’s decision to follow His plan to serve in a mission hospital in South Korea and eventually to travel to North Korea has resulted in tremendous blessings in our lives. Among those blessings are friendships with Korean medical colleagues that God is using to further His Kingdom’s work.
As I enjoy the blessings and fruit of this decision to follow God’s plan, I know there are other areas of my life God wants to bless and prosper. And I know He will if I can only have the faith to fully commit to His plan in that area of my life.
Lord, give me the courage and faith to seek and follow your will in every area of my life. I know you will respond to my decisions about following your will. Give me faith.
Dan Jones, M.D., MACP, FAHA, a board-certified Internist, a former medical missionary to Korea, professor of medicine at the University of Mississippi School of Medicine, Dean of the School of Medicine, and Chancellor of the University of Mississippi until 2015. Dr. Dan Jones is a member of CMDA.
Dr. Jones welcomes any comments or questions about what he has written and can be reached at - djones@umc.edu
Rounds with the Master, Spiritual Pearls from the Great Physician Devotionals are released every Monday and Thursday.
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