Be careful of what you wish for!

     Yesterday I talked about my dislike of spiders.  Their place on earth isn't questionable but is interesting.  They eat flying insects and crawling insects.  Wishing spiders didn't exist may be a comforting thought for me but it would be selfish.  That wish would also create some problems in nature.  I once read that if no flies died for 24 hours that flies would cover the earth 3 feet deep.  I haven't been able to verify that alleged fact.  However, the implications are clear.  We don't want that many flies anywhere.  Thank you spiders!  I still don't like them.  Wishing their demise isn't a good thing. 
     Wishing I had a million dollars is or has been on the lips of perhaps every adult on earth.  I have wished that many times.  So, what if you did get the one million dollars?  What was it you wanted it for in the first place?  Most likely, like me, it was for something pleasurable either for myself or for someone that I care about.  In today's economy the figure should be at least ten million dollars with inflation where it is.  James tells us that "we ask and have not because we ask with wrong motives."  Well that describes me!  It's not that God doesn't want us to have the money.  It's that God knows the motives of our hearts.  Like with the spiders, money has it's place when used for God's purpose.  A new Hummer is no God's purpose.  A new Hummer shipped to a missionary in a mountainous region is God's purpose.  Well, most likely anyway.
     There are any number of times that we have wished ill to those we know.  Usually that person or group is or are people who are tormenting us, abusing us, hurting us or otherwise attacking who we are.  Many a person has wished someone dead and when they die felt guilty for the rest of their lives for their wish.  Jesus said that if we even think of harming someone we are already guilty of the crime.  So, I guess I should have spent a few years in prison.  Fortunately, I haven't been judged in that fashion.  The prison that we are put in is of our own making.  Prisoner to our thoughts and the compulsion to even the score.  In our haste for justice, we don't consider that justice will be there for us, those wishing ill, as well.  We have a problem in our world with making ill come true.  Our children are programed by video games, the news, gang affiliation, or even parents who are in jail for violent crimes.  Be careful of what you wish for.
     Wishing the return of Jesus doesn't sound like a bad thing.  However, for the non-believer this is a bad thing.  We, Christians, do wish for Jesus to return or to take us home.  We are seeking a selfish end to our life here on planet earth.  But what about our neighbor, child, friend, enemy, family or even whole nations?  With the return of Jesus those in Christ will be taken to heaven.  Those who do not believe will be left here to deal with reality.  Those who profess Christ as Savior will be killed for their faith and so enter heaven.  ALL those who do not know Christ (according to Revelations 20) will spend eternity in hell as their names aren't written in the Book of Life.  Wishing those people around us to know Jesus is great.  Praying for them and talking with them about salvation and the grace of God is great.  Knowing their names are written in the Book of Life is a wish come true.
     Wishing for the past to be altered so that we don't make THAT mistake is futile.  It's not going to happen.  This moment is gone just as quickly as it came.  We cannot change that which we is past.  We can deal with it, learn from it, and not repeat it though.  Revelation 20 also states that we will be judged by our works.  If that is true (and it is) then I'm going to be quite embarrassed when I am judged.  Perhaps you will be also?  Approaching the throne of God is only possible because God wishes us to be saved.  That's what the Bible says.  God wishes that our needs be met and that we care for the souls of those around us.  What would happen if we, God's people, only wished for what God's will is?  Jesus wishes that I would die to self and let him live through me.  That's what I wish for today for myself and for you.