THE ONE YEAR BIBLE NOVEMBER 5 "DON'T DO IT!"

        THE most disobeyed thought that comes to our minds, more often than we would care to admit is, "Don't do it!" How many times have you and I heard that voice and ignored it. When I am angry....I'm not listening to that voice. When I am filled with lust...I am not listening to that voice. When I am filled with "my way"....I am not listening to that voice. When "I'm tired" I'm not listening to that voice. Isn't that dangerous?! In the times when I need to listen to that voice the most, my feelings override every other faculty of the mind. Don't do it! This thought, may even be screaming to some that are reading this blog today. Everything I feel, everything I sense, everything within me (except for that thought) is urging and pressing me to doing this. I'm tired, I'm fed up. I'm tired of being broke, I’m tired of no intimacy with my spouse, I'm tired of not having enough, I'm tired....I'm tired, I'm tired....and yet the answer is the same, Don't do it!!!

     People do not rob banks because they are rich. Most people who steal, don't steal because they have plenty, most people who do drugs don't do drugs because they are filled with joy. Most people who get drunk don't get drunk because life is going great. Most men who cheat don't cheat because things are going great at home. In almost ALL cases where we are about to do something we are going to regret, we do them not because things are going well, but because we are in a crisis, but yet, God will always whisper to you, Don't do it! And our answer back to God would be, "why not, why not!" And God's answer would be, "because you are going to regret it, because it will ruin you, because it will be your undoing.” We have to be able to endure hard times, we have to be able to endure suffering. As a good soldier (prisoner of war) is expected not to give in and give up key combatant information, but suffer torture, so is the Christian Soldier expected to suffer and not give in. "Suffer", the Apostle Paul says. "Suffer as a good and faithful soldier". "I'm hungry, I'm tired, I'm broke, I’m being tempted", Paul would say, "suffer through" don't do anything haste, 

it will pass. I've lived through some excruciating pain in my life and also lived through some excruciating depression and it would have been nice just to die in those times, but I am glad I didn't because the pain passed, as bad as it was, and the depression broke, as dark as it was. Elijah also cried out to God to let him die, but God did not grant him that request! We must be tough enough to suffer and not take action. Esau reflects the opposite of all I've written. What we think of Esau's Pre-dicament, doesn't matter. In Esau's mind he was desperate and he was tired. Everything within him urged him to get what he was lusting after. Did Esau have that still small voice in the back of his mind saying, Don't do it! Of course he did! Endure for now, suffer through it.....would have been the right thing and why? The reason why is because later he would regret it and later so will you regret it. In the book of Hebrews today we read,  “Afterward, as you know, when he wanted to inherit this blessing, he was rejected. Even though he sought the blessing with tears, he could not change what he had done." Remember that word....."afterward". When you go ahead and do, what that still small voice said "not to do", there will always be an afterward that you will have to face and that day will seem and feel worse than the day you felt, you had no choice but "to do it". Our text says "tears" could not change what Esau had done. Regret, could not change what Esau had done. Our text makes it clear, nothing could change the decision Esau made that day. This is why, whenever we hear that voice whispering "don't do it" that we don't. No matter how hard things are, no matter how much we are suffering, we must endure and not do anything haste, especially when we know better because there will always be an afterward, that is filled with tears and regret, but tears and regret, will not change, what you have brought into being, by ignoring, God's still small voice and council. Today, if you are on the edge, you're on the brink, you're tired and ready to react, give in, do something that you know you shouldn't do, take heed to God's voice that speaks in your conscience, "don't do it" if not for the sake of simply obeying God, than at least for your own sake because you will regret it if you do and you will shed tears afterward, but you won't be able to reverse what you've done. Endure for just a little longer, pray a little harder and the cloud will pass, TRUST GOD.

Richard P. Swift is Pastor of The Door San Angelo and author of the bestselling devotional, The One Year Bible Devotional.

"Read The One Year Bible Devotional on Amazon"

Visit The Door San Angelo