Intention ≠ Execution

I was going to do it. I’m serious. I was really going to carry it through this time. I thought about it. I prayed about it. I sketched out some plans. But, it never happened. Why? Because intention ≠ execution. And this is true not only of me. It is true of you too.

There are factors that make our endeavors more difficult than we anticipate. Those factors may be external - forces and circumstances at work against us. Or, those factors may be internal - habits and patterns that seem to rule with the power of an addiction, prohibiting us from doing what we intend.

I wonder then, when we stand before God “in that day,” when our behaviors are judged - I wonder, will God evaluate based on our good intentions? or based upon our actual actions - our executions? Now, I have no doubt that God’s judgment is able to take into account all the proper considerations. But I do not for a moment believe that He will evaluate intentions as opposed to executions. It is what we do, or, don’t do, that will be evaluated. Not what we say we will do, but what we do.

If one intends to please God with His actions, based on his own powers of “doing good,” whether in obedience to God’s revealed law, or, as is more the style today, in obedience to one’s own latest notion of what is right and wrong - if that is one’s intention, then he will be sadly disappointed. Because here is an area where intention ≠ execution rules with an iron arm. We, relying on our own resources, are utterly incapable of meeting God’s righteous requirement. That has only been done by God’s own Son, Jesus, who lived perfectly on this earth when he took on human nature and lived a man’s life. Since he alone was able to perfectly match intention and execution, only our faith/reliance on him will place us in the company of those who are accepted by God.

But how will we know if this judgement will really happen. Oh, because that which God intends, that indeed He does.

Profitability ≠ Probability

It would be good if you would lose a few pounds. It would be a good idea to exercise more. You should really spend more time talking with your wife and kids. What you really ought to do is slow down and stick to a plan.

These are all bits of advice aimed at no one in particular. Each may be advisable in a given situation - perhaps profitable. But what we will find throughout human history, and in our own individual experience, is that profitability ≠ probability. The fact that if would be good, or that you should, or ought - it doesn’t really matter, because just as profitability ≠ probability, so also should ≠ want. We do what we want.

It is hard to argue with the profitability of the Gospel. Accept this diagnosis (that we are all sinners) and receive this cure (believe and follow Jesus as the only hope for salvation) - and you will be saved. But do the majority of those who hear the Gospel accept and receive? No. Profitability ≠ probability. If a person at enmity with God really cannot save himself, and if Jesus really is the central figure in all of human history, then yes, you really should accept and receive him. But the matter stands and falls on his question: do you want to? Why that question? Because should ≠ want.

The prophet Isaiah says the reason for our reluctance is not in the offer, nor in the presentation. The reason is in our own persons. We are “a rebellious people, walking in a way that is not good, following (our) own thoughts.” Rebellious. Stubborn. Self-directing and wise-in-our-own-eyes. That’s us. And that is why we often do the dumbest things, like ignoring good advice, and clinging to the unprofitable path.

What might happen if we, just for this season, gave in and did things God’s way? Pick an area of life. Maybe it has to do with your thoughts, or words, or a relationship, or what you listen to - what if you just did the improbable? Maybe you would find it to be actually profitable.