He is a Conditional God of "IF's"

"If you build it, he will come."

"If you pass go, collect two hundred dollars".

"If I had a million dollars, I would..."

I'm sure that most of you have seen the Ebay commercial with "It" as the subject. If you haven't, they are adds in which all of the people in them are enamored by the presence of "It". I think they are pretty funny because "It" comes in all shapes, sizes, and compositions. In fact, "It" is shown in the form of artwork on a living room wall and even as meat cooking on a grill. The main point of the commercial is that whatever your heart desires, you can find it on Ebay.

I almost wrote a post about how many people put stuff ("It") ahead of God, but He spoke to me yesterday and told me to use the word "If" instead. Throughout the Bible, God uses the word IF. Actually, IF is found 1,588 times in the Bible and each time is very important because IF is a conditional statement that requires a response. For example, I told my son yesterday, "If you eat your supper, then we will play basketball." Long story short, He ate, we played. Sometimes however, the word IF is used in more harsh ways such as: "If you disobey me again, then you will get a spanking!" The common thread in these statements is that the groundwork is laid before a decision is made by saying IF, and the outcome (good or bad) is foretold by saying Then.

In the same way that a parent uses "If" to rear a child, God uses it as well. For example, in II Chronicles 7:14, God says:

"If my people, who are called by my name, will humble themselves and pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways, then will I hear from heaven and will forgive their sin and will heal their land."

God tells the people that had turned their back on Him that If you do what I say, I'll hear and help you. Another random example is in John 15:5, Jesus said:

"If a man remains in me and I in him, he will bear much fruit."

and my personal favorite Romans 10:9 says:

"If you confess with your mouth, "Jesus is Lord," and believe in your heart that God raised Him from the dead, you will be saved."

I read a while back that the average person makes somewhere in the ballpark of 10,000 decisions everyday! That is a buch of "if's" and "then's" if you think about it. Even though ten thousand may seem like a lot, think about it this way:

From the moment you wake up, your mind (and your heart) are already making decisions that you may not even be aware of. Everything from which foot to step out of bed on, to which finger to use to scratch that annoying itch on your back, your mind is working all the time and making subconscious decisions that you may not even think about, you just do them.

When you look at it like this, 10,000 is probably a pretty reasonable number.

The big kicker is that every decision you make will have an outcome that is either good or bad, positive or negative. In fact, all decisions will have eternal significance in your life. This is why it is so important to put God in the middle of your decisions using his conditional model of that says if I listen to God, then I will be rewarded. Sure, some decisions like which tooth to bush first or which side of your face to shave may not be that important, but what about the bigger decisions in your family such as financial, educational, and above all moral decisions? When we put God in our decisions, He will help us discern which way to decide.