God Forbid
“God forbid” is often spoken as an oath. Sometimes the expression, “God forbid,” can be very instructive to us. The following passages provide us with a good topical outline for some things that should never happen in our lives.
God forbid that we should rebel – Jos 22:21-29 – In Jos 22:29, Israel said they would not rebel against the Lord, or turn away from the Lord to serve other gods [Jos 24:14-16]. We should covenant that, despite the pressures from the world to turn away from the Lord, we are not going to rebel.
God forbid that we should cease to intercede – 1 Sam 12:20-25 – In 1 Sam 12:23 Samuel said, “God forbid that I should sin against the Lord in ceasing to pray for you.” Israel was in bad shape after asking for a king and Samuel knew they weren’t going to get better. However, he considered it a sin against the Lord to quit praying for them. God forbid that we should ever cease to pray for each other and for others. Keep praying; you have no idea what God may be doing in their lives.
God forbid that we should continue in sin – Rom 6:1-2 – that grace may abound [Rom 6:15]. Christians today are very lax about sin, partly because we are under grace. Grace is often the justification for committing sins that are clearly abominable to God. Determine in your heart to deal with every sin the Lord brings to your attention. Trust the grace of God and the shed blood of Jesus Christ to stop.
God forbid that we should charge God foolishly – Rom 9:9-14; Job 1:22 – Never charge God with with unrighteousness. You may not like what God does or the way he does it. However, you can be sure of this. God never does anything wrong. In this age of rebellion against all authorities in government, law enforcement, schools, etc., people blame the authorities. God forbid that we should ever blame God. He does all things well.
God forbid that we should fornicate – 1 Cor 6:12-18 – through fornication we become members of an harlot. Young people and married men and women, even those in the ministry, are falling in record numbers to this sin. Make a covenant with the Lord that you are not going to give in to the temptation to ever defile the temple of God by joining yourself with another person in fornication.
God forbid that we should glory – Gal 6:12-15 – save in the cross of Christ. It is easy for us to make a religion out of our relationship to the Lord. And then to judge others based on whether they conform to our religious practices and convictions. And then to glory when we are “better” than they are. And to glory even more when we have made them like us.
This is what the law abiding Jews were trying to do to the Galatians. They wanted them to be circumcised so they could glory in their adherence to the law. We may glory when “we” have led another soul to Christ. Stop. If it weren’t for the cross of Christ, we couldn’t be saved, we couldn’t yield to the life of Christ in us, and we couldn’t mortify the deeds of the flesh. Don’t glory in yourself or men; glory in the cross.
Conclusion: perhaps the Lord has revealed an area of your life that you need to strengthen with “God forbid.” Then get with the Lord and address that area. With his help, commit that you are not going to rebel, or cease to intercede, or continue in sin, or charge God foolishly, or fornicate, or glory in anything or anyone but the cross.