Jumping to Conclusions ...

"Therefore judge nothing before the appointed time; wait till the Lord comes. He will bring to light what is hidden in darkness and will expose the motives of men's hearts. At that time each will receive his praise from God” (1 Corinthians 4:5 NIV).

Do you also jump to conclusions easily and then find out that your conclusions were wrong? Oh let me tell you how the LORD recently corrected me on one of my conclusions. Fortunately it was only between Him and me, and He didn’t expose my thoughts. But I am going to share them with you today because I learned a very good lesson!

In that particular week I wasn’t able to attend our local Farmers Market, so we sent our friend and ministry partner to represent me and to sell our home made Swiss bread. When I came back from our trip that evening I counted the remaining loaves and discovered that one had been opened. I thought that this was a little odd, but figured our friend had been hungry that afternoon and wanted to eat some of the freshly baked bread. The more I thought about it, the more I got irritated because I reasoned that he could have sold that loaf or at least asked me if he could have a bite or two. I admit that those were my thoughts and my conclusions.

Then, full of excitement, our friend began to share with me his side of the story. He hadn’t sold a lot of bread that afternoon and so he prayed to God. He took action and opened up a loaf, went to each and every vendor at the Farmers Market and offered them a sample so that they could taste the great bread. By doing this he sold three more loaves of bread. Oh no, I couldn’t believe what I just heard! My conclusions were totally wrong and I was ashamed at myself for having had such thoughts. I definitely learned my lesson that day!

The Bible warns us in verse 5 of 1 Corinthians chapter 4 that we should not judge before the appointed time and that the LORD will bring light to everything that is hidden. The lesson I learned that day was that jumping to conclusions and acting as if I knew it all was totally wrong. I firmly believe now that we absolutely need to give room to the LORD to bring light and exposure into the motives of the hearts of man. On our part we need to wait for the arrival of the appointed time. Do you agree? Then let’s wait, see and jump when the LORD says so!

Have a wonderfully blessed day!


Suzanne Tanner