Why You Should Never Say Never

I must have sounded like a broken record to all who cared to listen. Over and over. Again and again. Records might have gone out of style decades ago, but I just couldn’t help myself. I am not getting any more dogs in the future. I am not getting any more dogs in the future. Then, just in case anyone in fact was bothering to listen, I had more to say. Again and again. I have 17 mostly special needs and senior rescued dogs in my care, and that’s just a small part of my ministry. I haven’t traveled for a single night for over 4.5 years because of the dogs. I AM NOT GETTING ANY MORE DOGS IN THE FUTURE. For anyone old enough to have lived during the days of records and record players, there was only one good fix for a broken record. Lift up the little arm with the needle, remove the record from the spindle, and onward. But the old-fashioned way of removing a broken record from the player would most assuredly not suffice when it came to my broken record about the dogs. For I needed a much bigger fix than that. And the Lord made that abundantly clear one day as I bustled through the yard caring for the dogs. In His infinite love, patience, grace, and mercy, the Lord revealed to me that day in my heart that Little Miss Broken Record needed to repent. But why?

I used to lovingly, albeit sometimes impatiently, scold a beloved friend of mine for always declaring what she would NEVER do in the future, who would NEVER change, what would NEVER happen, etc. Little did I know I needed to hold up my little hand-held oval mirror, sufficiently big enough to take in my whole mouth, and realize what exactly I – yes, I – had been doing regarding the dogs. I had foolishly, selfishly, made up my mind about my entire future regarding special needs and senior dogs in need and made it abundantly clear to the Lord that I – yes, me – am obviously in charge of my own life. 

How quickly I found myself repenting! God forgive me. And come to think of it, I had no right to merely seek His forgiveness for deciding my future regarding dogs, but for every time I have ever walked around like a broken record believing and deciding that I will NEVER EVER do something in the future. After all, am I not Little Miss Ministry who is constantly professing to the world that I BELONG TO THE LORD? Yes, that’s me! And this, my fundamental genuine belief that I really am the Lord’s, is exactly why when I find my flesh running in entirely the opposite direction of what God’s Bible teaches me, is why I need to confess my wrongs when I stumble upon them, seek the Lord’s forgiveness, and proceed to walk – and talk – in the right direction. HIS. For HIM. The Lord has lovingly, and faithfully, reminded me that His Word teaches us to leave the future in His amazing, knowing, skilled and loving hands.

If you have ever found yourself saying NEVER about the future, perhaps you, too, need the reminder that the future is the Lord’s. And if you repent and believe the Gospel that Christ is Lord and died on the cross for you and genuinely commit your life to the Lord, then you, too, are His. Never say never, dear friend. Instead, let God take care of your tomorrows. As for this day, make the decision to live for Him and let Him lead the way. 

Go to now, ye that say, To day or to morrow we will go into such a city, and continue there a year, and buy and sell, and get gain: 14 Whereas ye know not what shall be on the morrow. For what is your life? It is even a vapour, that appeareth for a little time, and then vanisheth away. 15 For that ye ought to say, If the Lord will, we shall live, and do this, or that. James 4:13-15

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