Ephesians 1:9 He
made known to us the mystery of His will, according to His kind intention which
He purposed in Him
Hebrews 4:12 For
the word of God is living and active and sharper than any two-edged sword, and
piercing as far as the division of soul and spirit, of both joints and marrow,
and able to judge the thoughts and intentions of the heart.
Joshua 24:15 "If
it is disagreeable in your sight to serve the LORD, choose for yourselves today
whom you will serve: whether the gods which your fathers served which were
beyond the River, or the gods of the Amorites in whose land you are living; but
as for me and my house, we will serve the LORD."
I recently had an experience where I had to do a “SELF CHECK”
and had to ask myself some tough questions. I know I am not 100% obedient to
the will and unction of God; yet, I also can sleep at night because I do
approach situations where I can stand tall and bare before God because I've
asked Him to search me and my heart prior to entering into whatever
We can't sin to accomplish good intentions; Herod harassed
the church. In doing so, he killed the apostle James. Since Herod saw this
pleased the Jews, he imprisoned Peter with the intent of putting him to death
to gain favor with the Jews (Acts 12:1-4).
The intent to please the Jews was not necessarily wrong. In
fact, one may argue that it was politically necessary from Herod's view. But
the problem arises in the manner Herod sought to please the Jews --- namely
murder.
As a sinful man, Herod was willing to murder a person to
accomplish his good intentions. But as children of God, we must seek to
accomplish good intentions through righteous means rather than sinful acts.
Good intentions do Not Justify Sin; Paul, speaking before
the Sanhedrin, professed to have lived with a "perfectly good conscience
before God up to this day" (Acts 23:1). While doing so, he locked up
saints in prison, cast his vote to put them to death, punished them in the
synagogues, tried to force them to blaspheme, and pursued them to foreign
cities (Acts 26:11-12).
Before becoming a Christian, Paul had good intentions while
persecuting Christians. Yet he was lost in sin. He had to be baptized, washing
away his sin, and calling on the name of the Lord (Acts 22:16).
From Paul we learn that good intentions do not justify sin!
The road to hell is paved with good intentions!; One day I
was listening to G. Gordon Liddy as he discussed the Great Depression with an
economist. They were united in their view that congress worsened the depression
by government involvement, rather than allowing our free market economy to make
the correction. When making this point, the economist said he wasn't
questioning congress' intentions, but their good intentions didn't change the
devastating result of their actions.
Mr. Liddy agreed, commenting that the road to hell is paved
with good intentions.
I began to think about Mr. Liddy's profound and
thought-provoking statement. It's true, the road to hell is paved with good
intentions. A person may have good intentions, but the method of achieving the
intention may result in disaster.
God honors obedience not intentions; "Not everyone who
says to Me, 'Lord, Lord,' will enter the kingdom of heaven, but he who does the
will of My Father who is in heaven will enter. Many will say to Me on that day,
'Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in Your name, and in Your name cast out
demons, and in Your name perform many miracles?' And then I will declare to
them, 'I never knew you; depart from Me, you who practice lawlessness'" (Matt.
7:21-23).
Some people who have good intentions, able to perform
magnificent works upon the earth, will be surprised at the judgment. They won't
enter heaven because they didn't obeyed God. They will be surprised to learn
that obedience counts, not intentions.
Just like a young person who intends to do her homework
after school, but falls asleep; she goes to school the next day and gets an F.
It doesn't matter whether we intend to obey God or not, all that matters is
whether we obey.
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