The sin of presumption

Then the Lord said, “My Spirit will not contend with man forever, for he is mortal; his days will be a hundred and twenty years.” Genesis 6:3

I call it the sin of presumption – a widely believed myth today that goes like this: “God will always be there, and no matter what I do, I can count on Him to bail me out.” But the question that has to be answered is this: “Can I disregard God and His plan for my life and assume that He’ll be there when I play my trump card and ask Him to save or deliver me?”

Samson was strong. The record tells how he seized the gates of a Philistine city and carried them a considerable distance. Reading Judges 13 through 16, which chronicles his life, you repeatedly find the phrase, “Then the Spirit of the Lord came upon him in power,” and what follows was an extraordinary feat of physical strength. Samson was sure God would always be there when he needed Him. And that was true until he crossed the line of no return. Then, says the record, “He awoke from his sleep and thought, ‘I’ll go out as before and shake myself free.’ But he did not know that the Lord had left him” (Judges 16:20).

How do you know when you are pushing the envelope of safety? When you deliberately do wrong and you know clearly in your heart that what you are doing is contrary to God’s Word and purpose in your life, you are committing the sin of presumption.

When God told Noah, “My Spirit will not contend with man forever, for he is mortal,” He was drawing a line. When you cross that line, you are gambling that God will be there to bail you out. It’s a dangerous presumption you can’t afford to be mistaken about.