There Are No Guarantees in Life. . .OR are there?

 

Benjamin Franklin once said “There are no guarantees in life except death and taxes.”  Well, isn’t that just a cheery thought!  It’s a good thing babies don’t understand words and meanings in the beginning or they would just want to crawl right back in the womb and stay there.  I disagree with this statement and I’ll tell you why.  First, let me tell you what I can guarantee:

 

A cow will moo instead of clucking.

A dog will bark instead of meowing.

When it rains, something will get wet.

If you make bees mad, you WILL get stung.

If you get bit by a mosquito, it WILL itch.

If you break bones, it WILL hurt.

If you build a garden, there will be weeds in it.

If I sang a solo in church, I would never be asked to again.

If you put roller skates on me, I WOULD fall down.

If a woman has natural childbirth with out medications of any kind and says 

   It wasn’t that bad, she’s lying.

If I go into my son’s room as he is falling asleep, he will ask for a backrub.

If I ask my husband to do a job, he will always find a way to accomplish it.

When I talk to my momma on the phone, she will ask “How’s my darlin’”

If you are around someone having a laughing fit, you will at least giggle.

Each spring, the trees will leaf out and the flowers will bloom.

You have a past.

You are living in the present.

You do have a future. (Someone might argue this last one…just hang on)

 

What is a guarantee?  The web offered definition and these were the best:

Anything that assures a certain outcome.

A collateral agreement to answer for the debt of another.

To assume responsibility for a debt.

            (And my favorite)

To undertake, to free the prisoners.

 

I bet a lot of you know where I’m going.  But there are some who don’t and this is who I’m speaking to now.  Someone has given us the guarantee of an abundant life, to have everlasting joy and peace regardless of our circumstances, unconditional love, to never leave us or forsake us, and to give us a home in a paradise one day, Heaven instead of the other awful, fiery alternative. What an awesome guarantee and who could make such a promise?  Jesus Christ.  What is the collateral?  We repent of our sins and give them over to Him, and He takes the guilt away.  Once prisoners to our sin, we are now freed! 

 

The world can be so negative and people can be such downers.  I know, because I’ve been one of them.  Because I let the hurt of circumstances become stronger than my focus on the Lord of my life.  But when I drew my focus back on Him and placed my circumstances in His hands and let go, the peace and joy came back.  I started to move past those circumstances and go on with my life. I didn’t leave them behind.  I put them in the hands of the one I knew could take care of it all and I daily trust Him with the outcome.

I, for one brief moment, took my eyes off of Him and concentrated on what the devil wanted me too.  I wised up and said to him “NO MORE!”.  My eyes are focused once again in the right place, they are wide open, and a smile is back on my face.

 

Are you smiling?  I know bad, gloomy things happen in our lives and He gives us a time to grieve, but when the time is right, it is time to move on. 

 

If you’re wondering how to do this kind of life, it’s really very simple.  You just bow your head humbly before the Lord, repent of your sins asking Him to take them away and come into your heart and be Lord of your life.  That’s all there is to it.  It’s not hard, it’s not complicated.  Then you step forward with a renewed way of living.  Once a prisoner, now set free, no matter where you are sitting.

 

Wouldn’t you like to be debt free?  Wouldn’t you like to be set free? Hand the sin over to Jesus Christ and accept the gift of forgiveness that will last forever.

 

You want a guarantee?  How about John 3:16…’For God so loved the world, that He gave His one and only Son, that whoever believes in Him shall not perish but have everlasting life.”