Recently I read an article with suggestions for parents of young children. To avoid some of the battles that can develop, the author was encouraging replacing the word "if" in any vocabulary with "when". For example, instead of saying "If you eat your supper we will go to the park", change the statement to "When you eat your supper we will go to the park." Switching up that one word not only eliminates the idea that eating supper is optional, but gives a positive affirmation of expectation. There is an assumption that the supper will be eaten and a time of fun outside will follow.
As I read Manoah's response to the angel of God who prophesied about his son Samson yet to be born, the word "when" caught my attention. Manoah doesn't say "if" Your words come true, but "when". He fully believed that what had been spoken would happen. How confident are we in the word of God? If God speaks it, do we believe it?
Just yesterday I listened to an interview with Helen Smallbone, her daughter Rebecca St. James and her daughter-in-law Moriah, three of the ladies involved in the movie currently in the theatres, "Unsung Hero". Helen was asked by the interviewer Annie Downs to share a little about her prayer life. She shared that as a child she had watched her father, a Methodist preacher, pray for miraculous healing on behalf of others. She questioned how he could pray for healing, asking "Is God really going to answer your prayer?" Her father's response was significant to her. He said, "I'm not responsible for how God answers that prayer, I'm responsible for praying."
Helen was then asked, "Were you ever worried that the Lord wasn't going to answer, and this was in front of your children, and their faith was at risk here?" She replied by saying, "I actually don't think I was. As Christians we have to stand on the word of God, and He says, 'I will provide your needs', 'I will look after you.' It's a promise, so the only question I would go back to then, 'Are we where God needs us to be? Are we following Him? And if my answer is 'yes', then there's a trust element that He has promised He will look after us, He has promised He will provide for us, He has promised He knows what our needs are...for me if I know I am where God wants me to be, there's no better place."
Helen unshakably expressed no "if's" that God would provide as He says, only a knowing that He would keep His word. Our role is to be obedient to pray, releasing the prayer to God and believing He will act in His time and in His way. God's word is filled with promises and many of us need to start believing that they are more than possible suggestions. When God speaks, the outcome is guaranteed.
As Samson's parents confidently believed all the angel of God spoke to them concerning their son, we must have faith that all of scripture is true and then live in the assurance, not of "if", but "when". I think it is more than young parents who need to remove the word "if" from their speech. "When" is a word of belief. Let's start speaking it more often and live with the exuberant hope in the One who never fails.
To see the full interview with the Smallbone family: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pCqLOUVyFOA
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