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This Will Have to Do
This Will Have To Do does not equal God’s Best For Us
It is part of our human nature to make assessments and determine what we think is best for us in a given moment.
The other morning as I was getting ready to go to work in the morning, I realized I had too many things in my hands. The day was cloudy, and it was raining very lightly. I placed several items inside the car, started the engine and before getting into the car I noticed the trash can needed to be brought in from the curbside. Since I did not want my glasses to get wet, I proceeded to take them off and placed them on top of the car. I went out of the garage, took care of the trash can and came back into the car—completely forgetting that I had placed the glasses on top of it. I drove out of our drive way and as soon as I approached the intersection, I hear a noise that was familiar, but I dismissed it thinking it was a twig caught underneath the car. Then on a second thought, I suddenly remembered that my glasses were on top of the car! I pulled over, and I was so thankful to find my glasses caught in the spoiler in the back of the car. I thought in retrospect what a stupid choice that had been. What would guarantee that I would remember something that was not a routine for my brain to quickly be prompted about again?
Allow me to take you back to the exact moment when I took off my glasses and placed them on top of the car. I remember thinking for a split second, “This is not a good idea, but it will have to do.” Thankfully the outcome was not a loss of my glasses or the destruction thereof.
How many times in real life do we know what God desires for us to do, in order to choose life on his terms, but we tell ourselves I have a different idea of how to make this work and “this will have to do”? Have you been there? I have. And in some cases the consequences were less than desirable. I can think of occasions in my parenting where, in the midst of being angry at my daughter, I would recognize the option to slow down and think before speaking—which the Holy Spirit would offer to me in the moment. But what would I do? Regretfully, I would go right ahead and plow her with my words, and then pick up the pieces. Or the time when I was single and I refused to heed to the message God was giving me through several people about ending a relationship I was involved in. Convinced of how helpful that relationship would be in addressing some relational insecurities, I told myself again, “This will have to do.” Later on I had to deal with some painful consequences, including the pain I caused others in the process.
There is no question in my mind now that sin runs really deep at the point where we, very aware of our own destructive and proud choices, tell ourselves, “This will have to do.” If there is one strong deception sin brings with it all the time, it is the lie that the reward is worth the price even if it kills us in the process.
Here is were we go dead wrong. We talk ourselves into believing that what we deem sufficient or good at the moment is better than the life God offers us graciously. In the Bible, King Solomon affirmed it this way: “There is a way that seems right to a man, but its end is the way to death.” (Proverbs 14:12).
So the next time the message plays in your head, “This will have to do,” I encourage you to stop, think and question that message. Then consider this better message pronounced by God:
“Come, everyone who thirsts,
come to the waters;
and he who has no money,
come, buy and eat!
Come, buy wine and milk
without money and without price.
Why do you spend your money for that which is not bread,
and your labor for that which does not satisfy?
Listen diligently to me, and eat what is good,
and delight yourselves in rich food.
Incline your ear, and come to me;
hear, that your soul may live;…” —-(Isaiah 55)
