DANGEROUS PHRASES

Four phrases haunt me in my Christian life. They are WHAT IF, WHY ME?, IF ONLY, and YES, BUT. Like most words they can be used in a positive way or in a negative way. When I dwell on these negative uses, I find myself slipping into attitudes that are detrimental to my spiritual health. When I use any or all of these as excuses I find that the following tends to happen;

While I can use WHAT IF as a tool to imagine scenarios that lead to stories and poems that help me understand what God is doing in my life.

If I dwell on WHAT IF, I find I begin to worry rather than realizing that God is in control of all the details of my life. This grabs control from my Lord and puts it into my hands or Satans, Very Dangerous.

While I can use WHY ME in awe of the way God has directed my life leading me to gaze at Him in wonder.

If I constantly say, WHY ME, when dealt circumstances, I am unhappy with. I begin to feel sorry for myself and start to look at those situations rather than my Lord. Again I take power from Him and hand it over to my circumstances, Very Unwise.

While I can use IF ONLY to imagine a wonderful world with Christ reverently worshiped by all, leading me to pray for the unbelievers in my life.

If I begin to become discontent with my life and daydream with a persistent IF ONLY. I start to live in the future or the past and I stop being productive in what the Lord would have me to do now and often I just spin my wheels and go nowhere. This again takes the power from my Lord and puts it into my own hands because I have chosen to dwell on what I think could be if I had what I wanted, Very Unproductive.

While I can use YES, BUT, to examine the barriers I have put up or Satan has put into my life, barriers that tend to keep me from obedience, leading to confession and dependence on God’s faithfulness.

If I allow YES, BUT to become my answer to what the Lord is asking me to do, the balance of power shifts from my Lord to my feelings and whims, Very Foolish.

Now can you imagine where we would be if Christ had done that in the Garden of Gethsemane?

Can you imagine Him saying, "Father, WHAT IF this doesn’t work? Why don’t I just sit here and worry about humanity? That way I don’t have to go to the cross, we can just say that I feel their pain, it will be less agonizing and who can really be sure that our plan will work anyway?"

Can you imagine Him saying, "Father, WHY ME? Why must I be the one to do this? After all I have never sinned. I think Judas would be a better representative of this fallen race."

Can you imagine Him saying to the Father, "Father, IF ONLY I had stayed in the Carpenter’s shop, I would be settled, Mother would have her son with her and everything would be calm and peaceful for us."

Can you imagine Him saying, "Father, YES I know I need to do this, BUT, couldn’t it wait? I mean these people have gotten along ok thus far, so what’s the big hurry? What’s another couple thousand years?"

Aren’t you glad that He didn’t have the above conversations with the Father? Instead after a long and grueling struggle with His flesh , knowing all that He would have to face, still agreed with the Father that this must be done. It was the only way! His response of love and obedience is why all of us who believe and receive Him can look forward to a long, long eternity. Joyfully thanking Him for His faithfulness.

Christ’s example shows fruitful responses instead of these dangerous phrases. Jesus didn’t say WHAT IF He said in essence "I trust you Father." Instead of WHY ME, His actions said "Here I am, send me." Jesus didn’t waste time saying IF ONLY. Nothing He did wasted time, every move, every word had meaning. He said simply "YES, LORD" to His Father. YES, BUT wasn’t included in conversation with the Father, instead, He said "YES, I WILL." As we meditate this year on all that Jesus did for us let us take notice of what we say especially when responding to what the Lord is saying to us. Let’s take out of our vocabulary, the negative uses of WHAT IF, WHY ME, IF ONLY AND YES, BUT and replace them with I TRUST YOU, LORD; HERE I AM, SEND ME; YES, LORD; AND YES, I WILL, LORD. Can’t you just see the Father in His pleasure smiling down upon us and saying "Well done, good and faithful servants, come and share my joy forever?"

Linda Rubenack ©1995