It's Your Move

My son is a very good chess player today, but long ago, when he was about 4 or 5 he began asking me about chess and I taught him the game. He ate it up and wanted to learn all he could. He'd sit on my lap and play computerized chess. It wasn't all that long and his abilities were passing mine. Anyway, I was thinking about this and remembered one day when I was playing him a game of chess when he was around 12 years old and was already pretty good. We had sat at the board for a long time, neither one saying anything and I finally got up to get a drink and Daniel said, "Dad, aren't you going to make a move?" I stopped and looked at him, trying to keep from laughing, and said, "Well, I would, but it's your move." He argued with me for a couple of minutes until I finally convince him that it was his move. The problem was that he is so good that in his mind he is already picturing two or three moves ahead, as he tries to figure out what his opponent is going to do. He was so into the mental game that he actually forgot to make his actual move on the board. 

God spoke to me in that moment, and I still think about it often some 20 years later. What God showed me is that so many people are thinking about "if God would do this" or "if God would give me this" then I'd do this with it.  Always asking, always dreaming of "if only" but they are never doing anything. One thing I have learned about serving God and receiving his promises... is that they are conditional. Read the Bible and you will see again and again where God says, "If you... then I will."  For example, Deuteronomy 28 says, "if you diligently obey the voice of the Lord your God, to observe carefully all His commandments which I command you today..." and then it goes on for many verses proclaiming all the blessings that will overtake you. BUT don't miss the condition... "If you... then I".  In other words, God is saying, "It's your move." If we will listen, observe his words and obey (that is our move) then he will pour out blessings that we can hardly imagine. 

To someone today, may I suggest to you that it is time to stop asking, stop pleading... and to do something! Make your move! Trust him! Obey him! Then watch!  Because his blessing will overtake you!