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"For godly sorrow worketh repentance to salvation not to be repented of: but the sorrow of the world worketh death." (2 Corinthians 7:10)
When one belongs to God, he or she is eventually forced into a corner
where he or she must say "Amen" to God! "Amen" means "so be it," but it is
also a state of mind, where one never lets anyone else define his or her
reality; never lets anyone else put him or her into bondage to that
person's way of thinking.
To let others define our reality yields the sorrow of the world, that
the above verse of Scripture states, and is quite different from Godly
sorrow that comes from following God's unique call on our lives. Before
the worlds were formed, God called us by name to be His own possession, for
His own purpose.
Each of us is unique, and no one else can do the ministry God has
called each of his children to do in the same way. Scripture makes it very
clear that God is not here for us; we are here for God!
Much disappointment with God stems from allowing others to define our
reality for us and put us into bondage to their ways of thinking, as well
as from what sociologists call, "Anomie." In this context, anomie occurs
when we feel that God is here for us, to meet our needs and wants as we
define them, as some sort of cosmic bellhop, rather than recognizing the
fact that we have been called by God to do a work for Him that no one else
can do.
Many in the church world don't speak for the Church; many churches
don't speak for God! God is greater than the Church, and is greater than
the Bible, and our own feeble attempts to psyche out God are a gross waste
of energy. As someone said, "It is as much of a sin to define God as it is
to deny Him."
God won't be put in a box! When we allow others to define God and His
will for us, or when we presume to define God and script His will for our
lives, we play God and, hence, generate much disappointment within
ourselves and even anger at God.
About a year ago a student asked me if he and his girlfriend could
talk with me. Since she worked, we met at a coffee shop on a Saturday. He
explained how much he loved her and how he wanted to spend the rest of his
life with her. Then he asked her to speak with me.
She told me that she was attracted to other women and, although she
liked her "boyfriend," she was a lesbian and felt quite guilty about that
fact, as she had been raised in the church. I first told the young man
that his "girlfriend" didn't have any problem, but that he had the problem.
He wasn't willing to accept her for who she was.
I told him that I wish I had had such a good friend when I was his
age. I then turned to her and told her that she was committing a grievous
sin. However, it's not the sin she thought it was! She was condemning
what God made, and that was the grievous sin. I'm not one to call other
people sinners, given what I know about myself, but I had to hammer home to
her that she was allowing others to define her reality for her and thereby
put her into bondage to their definition of what it meant to be a
"Christian," and she didn't trust God to know what He was doing with her
life.
In fact, it wasn't "her life" in the first place, as we were created
by God for His use and we don't belong to ourselves but to Him, and no one
else can tell us what God's call on our lives entails. To belong to God
does create "godly sorrow," but it sure beats the sorrow that emanates from
the world when we look to others to tell us how to live the Christian life.
In Christianity, as in life itself, one size doesn't fit all! When we
listen to others, even those who may be well-meaning, and seek to please
them and adhere to their definitions of reality, we may become angry at
God, falsely thinking that they are speaking for God as it pertains to our
life.
Hear the Word of God from both the Old and New Testaments: "Cease ye
from man, whose breath is in his nostrils: for wherein is he to be
accounted of? (Isaiah 2:22) "For do I now persuade men, or God? Or do I
seek to please men? For if I yet pleased men, I should not be the servant
of Christ." (Galatians 1:10) Always remember, we are free men and women in
Christ!
We are not here to please others, or to be liked or affirmed by
others, even if they are in the church world. We are solely here to enact
God's will for our lives! He has already shown us His favor before the
worlds were formed! And we are assured that nothing can separate us from
His love! (Romans 8:35-39)
Notice that in the Apostle Paul's litany of things that can't separate
us from the love of God, he includes "... nor any other creature ..." (v. 39)
That phrase includes other human beings!
It doesn't matter what others may think, say, or even do! We are
assured that God enters into all things to work His good will and pleasure
in everything that happens to us. (Romans 8:28)
All we are called upon to do by God is to trust Him, regardless of
seen circumstances! When our life-circumstances seem to defy the promises
of God, we lean on Him and trust Him, His Word, and His many promises to
us, rather than look to the things and people of this world as our compass
point.
When we use God as our compass point; discern His unique call on our
lives; stop letting others define our reality or ways of thinking; don't
have the temerity to condemn what God made, we will then be leaning on God
as our Refuge, our Rock, our Fortress, our Shelter, amidst the winds and
turmoil in life's hurricane.
There is an excellent, thought-provoking, story that hammers these
points home in 1 Kings, Chapter 13. It is a story of "the man of God" and
of "the lying prophet.
God told the man of God that he was to, "Eat no bread, nor drink
water, nor turn again by the same way that thou camest." (v. 9) However,
there was a lying prophet who lived in Bethel (House of God) who told the
man of God, "... I am a prophet also as thou art: and an angel spake unto me
by the word of the Lord, saying, Bring him back with thee into thine house,
that he may eat bread and drink water." (v. 18)
Unfortunately, the man of God, rather than listen to God, instead
listened to the lying prophet and, "So he went back with him, and did eat
bread in his house, and drank water." (v. 19) When he left the lying
prophet's house, the man of God was ravaged and killed by a lion. (v. 24)
And what did the lying prophet say, after hearing the news? "It is the
man of God, who was disobedient unto the word of the Lord: therefore the
Lord hath delivered him unto the lion, which hath torn him, and slain him,
according to the word of the Lord, which he spake unto him." (v. 26) "And
he laid his carcase in his own grave; and they mourned over him, saying,
Alas, my brother!" (v. 30)
The message is clear! Don't be angry with God, or with anyone else, for that matter. If you choose to listen to others, rather than to God's call
on your life, only you are to blame!
God called you, for His own purposes, and neither the Church nor
anyone else has a right to stake a claim on your life! Betrayals,
discrimination, ostracism, demonization, turmoil, and all manner of past,
present, and future hurt are experienced for the glory of God if we remain
under the covering of His Blood through abiding trust in Him and in His
many promises.
Why be angry at God when you choose to lean on Him? Only He is
Jehovah Jirah, "The Lord will provide"; Jehovah Rophi, "I am the Lord that
healeth thee"; Jehovah Sitkinu, "He is our Righteousness"; Jehovah Shalom,
"He is our Peace"; Jehovah Shama, "The Lord is there." These are just some
of the names of God that give us confidence that we belong to Him; He knows
us better than we know ourselves; in Him we have our provisions, healing,
righteousness, and peace. Only He knows the past, present, and future, and
will make a way where there is no way!
He has chosen us for His own unique purposes. We are to never allow
anyone else to usurp His claims on our lives!
When we come to this "Amen" state of being, where we lay our very
imperfect lives down on God's altar for Him to use as He sees fit, where we
don't trust in our own strength and will-worship (Colossians 2:23), there
will be seen that there never was any cause for anger at God. If we want
to be angry, let's be angry at ourselves for allowing others to usurp God's
role, thereby playing God, in our lives!
As the martyr, Kartar Singh said as he was dying, "The life He gave to
me is the life I gave to Him." As a clerk in a Christian bookstore told me
a long time ago, "We are coins in God's pocket, and He can spend us any way
He wants to." When we don't internalize these truths, we are at the mercy
of the many "gods" of this world that seek to stake a claim on our lives,
many whom even claim to speak for God.
But let's repent! Repentance means to change one's focus from
trusting the many gods of this world, to trusting God! So, we turn from
using other people (and our own preconceived notions of what we are to be
like), as gods in our lives, be they parents, "friends," acquaintances, or
neighbors, and turn to God as the Author of the whole script of our lives;
Who created us for Himself; Who asks us to trust Him amidst all of our
troubles. Our trust in Him and His unique call on our lives gives us
permission to take even the most painful experiences we have endured, and
have yet to endure, and translate them, and ourselves, into Burnt Offerings
to God.
Once we see ourselves as having been called by God to be Burnt
Offerings to Him, through His sovereign choice before the worlds were
formed, we won't be angry at God, ourselves, or anyone else, anymore!
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From Fear to Freedom : Living As Sons and Daughter of God Rose Marie Miller God Lives : ...from Religious Fear to Spiritual Freedom James Kavanaugh
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