If you take the left, then I
will go to the right; or, if you go to the right, then I will go to the left.
—Genesis 13:9
“… if you are living the life
of faith you will exercise your right to waive your rights, and let God make
your choice for you. God sometimes allows you to get into a place of testing
where your own welfare would be the appropriate thing to consider, if you were
not living the life of faith. But if you are, you will joyfully waive your
right and allow God to make your choice for you. This is the discipline God
uses to transform the natural into the spiritual through obedience to His
voice.[…] The greatest enemy of the life of faith in God is not sin, but good
choices which are not quite good enough. The good is always the enemy of the
best. […] Many of us do not continue to grow spiritually because we prefer to
choose on the basis of our rights, instead of relying on God to make the choice
for us.” CHAMBERS
Nothing is more irritating to me than that voice on the GPS that says "Recalculating". I have chosen to do something other than follow the route that has been calculated. I want to go my own way. Fortunately there is a mute button that I can press so I don't have to listen to those reminders. We often do the same thing with the Holy Spirit.
When God is leading our
lives, the choices we make, with respect to living day-to-day, are not the same choices
that the rest of the world would make or the same as we might make.
When choosing our own way, self-preservation is our focus. I
mean if we don’t look out for ourselves, then who is going to? Sounds like a reasonable question, unless you
are a Christian that is. The Shorter catechism
asks, “What is the chief end of man?”.
The answer, “To glorify God and enjoy Him forever.” If we have an eternal perspective, our rights,
our comfort, our financial security become miniscule in light of our chief end
or purpose … to bring glory to God. And
how do we bring glory to God? (Romans 12:1,2) Offering ourselves as
living sacrifices .. laying our rights, our comfort, our financial security,
our relationships with others at the foot of the cross. That requires an eternal perspective on our
existence. Having a view of our existence that is more than the time we
spend on this earth. One day we will
understand why God chose to do things this way … but perhaps when that time comes
.. when we are finally transformed .. we won’t really care to know. We tend to think of God and spiritual truth in the context of
this world and it’s nature rather than thinking of this world in the context of
God and His nature. What circumstance are
you in the middle of that seems about to overwhelm you? (Philippians
4:6,7) says “be anxious for nothing”.
That does not leave much room, does it?
“with prayer, supplication, thanksgiving” Keep your focus on God not yourself. Yield
your rights to yourself to God. “and the peace of God will keep you” It’s true.
But it is only as real as your doing it.
Wanting to do it amounts to nothing.
So what are you waiting for? Trust God. CHARLEY
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