Don't Leave it up to Chance

Text: 2 Corinthians 5:9
So whether we are at home or away, we make it our aim to please him. (NRSV)

John Wesley once said something along the lines of, “There are some things that are too important to leave to chance.”  I believe that Paul is saying something similar here.  When we make something our “aim”, we are certainly not leaving it to chance.

We must be intentional about our devotion to God.  Peter writes that “Satan is roaming around like a roaring lion.” (1 Peter 5:8).  If we are not intentional, if we do not make pleasing God our “aim”, then certainly Satan will stop roaming around and pounce on us with no mercy.  I’ve read way too many stories of Christian leaders who left their relationship with God up to chance. Maybe they simply thought that God was the only one responsible for their relationship with God.  But whatever was going on, because their aim—their intentionality—was not to please God at all times, they fell from grace and back into sin.

Each morning before rising from our beds, we must talk with God and renew our relationship seeking to please him with all we do that day.  At mid-day, we must refocus our aim and adjust our fire if we are missing the mark of pleasing God.  And each evening, we must again talk with God about our day and seek forgiveness for our failures and offer God thanksgiving for our victories.

Don’t take chances with your relationship with God.  Focus, take aim, be intentional about pleasing God in each and every circumstance of your life.

Pray with me:

Lord God, thank you for reaching out to me through your Son, Jesus the Christ.  I pledge this day to focus my life on pleasing you no matter where I find myself, home or away.  AMEN.