Posted on by Abe Austin

Scriptural Analysis- Genesis 17:23, 26

23 And Abraham took Ishmael his son, and all that were born in his house, and all that were bought with his money, every male among the men of Abraham’s house; and circumcised the flesh of their foreskin in the selfsame day, as God had said unto him.

26 In the selfsame day was Abraham circumcised, and Ishmael his son.

When the Lord said that every male in Abraham’s house needed to be circumcised to become a part of the covenant, Abraham did not hesitate to follow. Notice that verses 23 and 26 both stress that Abraham followed through on these instructions in the selfsame day.

There have been times where I have received spiritual guidance and decided to “get to work on that…soon.” Which of course meant not doing anything to follow it right away, just sort of letting it stew around in the back of my mind until I forgot about it and never followed through. And it wasn’t that I meant to disobey, but I wasn’t prioritizing it, which proved to be a very slippery slope.

Procrastination is often the first step towards disobedience, and promptness the first towards faithfulness.

Posted on by Abe Austin

The Doing Muscle- Ecclesiastes 11:4 (NIV), Matthew 6:34

Whoever watches the wind will not plant; whoever looks at the clouds will not reap.

Take therefore no thought for the morrow: for the morrow shall take thought for the things of itself. Sufficient unto the day is the evil thereof.

COMMENTARY

Whoever watches the wind will not plant; whoever looks at the clouds will not reap
Take therefore no thought for the morrow. Sufficient unto the day is the evil thereof
I often find that when I feel the urge to make a change for good I have no shortage of reasons to not do it quite yet. I say to myself “I will do it, for sure, just as soon as I get past this really busy time. Then I’ll be able to make that change.”
Now, even if things did work out that way–which they never do–then what would I have as a result? A soul that does whatever is right…when it is convenient to do so. So maybe tomorrow would be more ideal, and I would do what was right. But then when the day after tomorrow was hard again? I just give up once more? That is a far cry from the quality of character that I, or anyone else, yearns for.
Each of us wants be the one who persevered in spite of great opposition, the one who did what was right when it was hard to do what was right, the one who stuck to their principles no matter how much fire they came under, the one who is unconditionally good. And that sort of character just cannot be developed by waiting for fair weather. We have to plant today, whatever today’s conditions may be.