'What if?' must be a 'now' question and not a question about the past. The past can't be changed but asking that question about a decision that needs to be made today has a present impact.
The first four books of the Bible have many 'If you...' statements that have conditional results for the people of Israel. I have been reading some of them this morning and they are interesting to me.
"If you make me an altar of stone, you shall not build it of hewn stones, for if you wield your tool on it you profane it." - Exodus 20:25 ESV
Look around and find the rocks. Don't change them or make them better. Don't chip off parts to make them fit. Don't edit the details of your life to sanitize or embellish it. Just find the big stones and pile them up as a place of worship.
"If you lend money to any of my people with you who is poor, you shall not be like a moneylender to him, and you shall not exact interest from him." - Exodus 22:25 ESV
"If you meet your enemy's ox or his donkey going astray, you shall bring it back to him. If you see the donkey of one who hates you lying down under its burden, you shall refrain from leaving him with it; you shall rescue it with him." - Exodus 23:4-5 ESV
Some moments bring big decisions and things can go either way.
"And Jesus answered them, 'Truly, I say to you, if you have faith and do not doubt, you will not only do what has been done to the fig tree, but even if you say to this mountain, 'Be taken up and thrown into the sea,' it will happen." - Matthew 21:21 ESV
What!?! We can believe and in a moment the terrain of a situation can change? Yes. That is the promise.
I want to live with a present tense 'What if?' statement of faith and not just a moral one.
"Salt is good, but if the salt has lost its saltiness, how will you make it salty again? Have salt in yourselves, and be at peace with one another." - Mark 9:50 ESV
Is this the way to be salty again? What if it is? We can search out and look for spiritual consequences in present decisions and choose God.
"Jesus said to her, 'Did I not tell you that if you believed you would see the glory of God?' " - John 11:40 ESV
We can't change the past. If we alter the stones we just defile the altar. We can do something now for later. We can believe God. We can trust Him now and mountains will move and people will gather to deal with issues. Nothing will change if we live in the past. The future is formed in the present.
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