Presumption

Details-Job_Confessing_his_Presumption_to_God-Blake

Presumption is connected to “audacity” which is “bold … disregard of normal restraints”.

Presume means “to undertake without … clear justification”.

In layman’s terms, it might be called assuming one can beat the odds ….

It is assuming one can run a tight schedule, leave at a precise time with no buffer zone, and still arrive on time without hitting any snags or delay points.

It is assuming in school that one can skip the daily discipline of class and study and then attempt at the last minute to cram for a test in order to come up with a passing grade.

It is assuming that one can show up once or twice during the course of a year at either the gym or church and have the same results as those who attend regularly and apply discipline on a regular basis.

Presumption appeals to the desire for comfort more than the daily grind of discipline, but it won’t yield the same results.

Presumption can be very destructive.  Sleeping until the last minute, hitting the alarm off, rushing out the door, and running a yellow or red light (don’t do it) in the presumptive hope of getting somewhere on time may lead to an accident or death.

The Bible talks about the whole counsel of God as being necessary for success.

When any instruction is followed, whether the ordinary ordered steps of a recipe or the time taken to go through a pre-flight check list, it is important to determine that all required steps are correctly followed for the desired result to be obtained.

It would not expected, for example,  for a cake to turn out correctly if the flour and oil are omitted. But then again, neither should life be expected to operate at full potential if instructions in the Word of God or directives by the Holy Spirit are omitted.

The Bible warns against presumption.

One form of presumption is assuming that God will pour out financial blessings without obedience to financial laws set out in the Word of God.

Here are some.

Malachi 3:8 Will a man rob God? Yet ye have robbed me. But ye say, Wherein have we robbed thee? In tithes and offerings.

9 Ye are cursed with a curse: for ye have robbed me, even this whole nation.

10 Bring ye all the tithes into the storehouse, that there may be meat in mine house, and prove me now herewith, saith the Lord of hosts, if I will not open you the windows of heaven, and pour you out a blessing, that there shall not be room enough to receive it.

11 And I will rebuke the devourer for your sakes, and he shall not destroy the fruits of your ground; neither shall your vine cast her fruit before the time in the field, saith the Lord of hosts.

12 And all nations shall call you blessed: for ye shall be a delightsome land, saith the Lord of hosts.

 

Haggai 2:2 Thus speaketh the Lord of hosts, saying, This people say, The time is not come, the time that the Lord’s house should be built.

3 Then came the word of the Lord by Haggai the prophet, saying,

4 Is it time for you, O ye, to dwell in your cieled houses, and this house lie waste?

5 Now therefore thus saith the Lord of hosts; Consider your ways.

6 Ye have sown much, and bring in little; ye eat, but ye have not enough; ye drink, but ye are not filled with drink; ye clothe you, but there is none warm; and he that earneth wages earneth wages to put it into a bag with holes.

7 Thus saith the Lord of hosts; Consider your ways.

8 Go up to the mountain, and bring wood, and build the house; and I will take pleasure in it, and I will be glorified, saith the Lord.

9 Ye looked for much, and, lo it came to little; and when ye brought it home, I did blow upon it. Why? saith the Lord of hosts. Because of mine house that is waste, and ye run every man unto his own house.

10 Therefore the heaven over you is stayed from dew, and the earth is stayed from her fruit.

11 And I called for a drought upon the land, and upon the mountains, and upon the corn, and upon the new wine, and upon the oil, and upon that which the ground bringeth forth, and upon men, and upon cattle, and upon all the labour of the hands.

 

Matthew 23:23 Woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! for ye pay tithe of mint and anise and cummin, and have omitted the weightier matters of the law, judgment, mercy, and faith: these ought ye to have done, and not to leave the other undone.

It is not the whole counsel of God to quote “my God shall supply all my needs” without obedience to the tithe or the laws of sowing and reaping that are throughout the Bible.

Genesis 8:22 While the earth remaineth, seedtime and harvest, and cold and heat, and summer and winter, and day and night shall not cease.

Luke 6:38 Give, and it shall be given unto you; good measure, pressed down, and shaken together, and running over, shall men give into your bosom. For with the same measure that ye mete withal it shall be measured to you again.

There are requirements.

Matthew 6:33 But seek ye first the kingdom of God, and his righteousness; and all these things shall be added unto you.

The tithe should be the first thing given out of any paycheck or income.  It should not be an afterthought or “if you have enough”.  Chances are you will never have enough if you put it last because it will be devoured if it is not given first.

If you tithe first one of the blessings may be that you make better financial decisions and don’t waste money and substance and/or don’t have certain crises that cost unexpected money.

Without obedience, a person comes out from under the umbrella of protection; the finances operate under the curse and are devoured.

It is presumption to expect prosperity without obedience.