Making the best choices

 

It is easy to say I want the will of God, but this past week has been filled with tests to that desire. One option was fine in size but terrible in color. I wanted the size but could I live with what did not appeal to me?

Another option looked good in the beginning but it had some serious flaws that would make life very challenging. Could I live with the cosmetics and deal with the flaws? Praying for the will of God seemed to mean a lot of compromise, yet it turned out neither option was His will. Then came yesterday.

Weeks ago we bought tickets to an outdoor event. But it was cold, very windy, and we were exhausted. I put on a winter vest and a windbreaker. I didn’t want to go. But we did and immediately, in a large crowd of people, found a cousin and his wife — and the reason it was God’s will that we attend this event. I don’t know him very well, but made a significant connection at our family reunion where he invited us to this event. He was involved in it in a small way, but so delighted that we came to encourage him.

Today’s reading speaks of this life of faith. We were burdened all week trying to figure out the will of God and relieved but exhausted to finally know what He wanted. How true that He says:

Do not be anxious about anything, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God. And the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus. (Philippians 4:6–7)

I’m not to worry about anything, certainly the ‘big’ issues of life but also the small, everyday stuff that can be a bother, particularly when I feel so helpless about it or so tossed with the choices. This week was filled with both, yet the simplicity of getting outside in the cold to make another person smile has more merit than all the struggles about choices that seemed vital at the time. Helplessness is good if it turns me from my I-wants to make simple decisions based on what the Spirit of God has clarified.

Again, as today’s reading says, I must remember that my chief strength in knowing and doing the will of God is my weakness, even utter helplessness:

But he said to me, “My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.” Therefore I will boast all the more gladly of my weaknesses, so that the power of Christ may rest upon me. For the sake of Christ, then, I am content with weaknesses, insults, hardships, persecutions, and calamities. For when I am weak, then I am strong. (2 Corinthians 12:9–10)

Knowing what choices to make apart from seeking the will of God is folly. It is easy to rely on preferences or what seems good and wind up making big mistakes. It is easy to choose what feels comfortable and wind up missing an opportunity to be a blessing to another person.

PRAY: Lord, I know my strengths easily hinder me from discovering Your will. I also realize how praying that Your will is done is stepping into a war zone. Our enemy is not at all interested in that kind of surrender. I hear the prayers of others and realize the conflict that so easily thwarts this desire to see You at work. My prayer today is that Your will is done — in my life and in the lives of all Your people, but also that we want it with all our hearts because trusting You and knowing what You want for us far out-weighs what we suppose to be the best choices. Amen.

Not thankful? A slippery slope

Devotional readings this week focus on God’s ability to use all things for my good because all things are His servants. This is not just about His sovereignty but about His ability to know what is needed to transform my life. Sometimes it is a jolting event. Sometimes it is the unkindness of others or a scheme of Satan. Sometimes it is the shock of seeing my own sinfulness. Yet He says…

Rejoice always, pray without ceasing, give thanks in all circumstances; for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you. Do not quench the Spirit. Do not despise prophecies, but test everything; hold fast what is good. Abstain from every form of evil. (1 Thessalonians 5:16–22)

No matter what is going on, the Holy Spirit makes it possible to rejoice. The Word of God says I can rejoice in trials (James 1:2-4) for they produce steadfastness maturity, a good thing. It also says that weakness is an opportunity for the grace of God to make His power perfect. Such is the mystery of godliness. The only things that can ruin this amazing working of God is quenching the Spirit by refusing His joy, lack of prayer, and being unthankful. In fact, lack of thankfulness is a slippery slope that leads to darkness and sin.

For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men, who by their unrighteousness suppress the truth. For what can be known about God is plain to them, because God has shown it to them. For his invisible attributes, namely, his eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly perceived, ever since the creation of the world, in the things that have been made. So they are without excuse. For although they knew God, they did not honor him as God or give thanks to him, but they became futile in their thinking, and their foolish hearts were darkened. (Romans 1:18–21)

Another thought from today’s reading is about God using other people to test my faith by their actions. The reading says, “I may not be able to give thanks for an unkind friend, but I can give thanks for the patience and meekness brought to me through the instrumentality of this friend’s unkindness.”

I can also give thanks if my reaction is impatience and annoyance, even anger — because God is showing me the stuff I need to confess, sin in my heart that He will cleanse as I bring it to Him. (1 John 1:9) This changes my attitude about contrary people. As instruments that serve God, I must give them the right receptivity, and if not, be thankful that God is using them to refine me. I want to obey this:

Do nothing from selfish ambition or conceit, but in humility count others more significant than yourselves. (Philippians 2:3)

When the events of life or the actions of people are uncomfortable or even evil, learning that God is still in charge is helpful toward understanding that this too can be used by God for my good:

But when anything is exposed by the light, it becomes visible, for anything that becomes visible is light. Therefore it says, “Awake, O sleeper, and arise from the dead, and Christ will shine on you.” Look carefully then how you walk, not as unwise but as wise, making the best use of the time, because the days are evil. Therefore do not be foolish, but understand what the will of the Lord is… (Ephesians 5:13–21)

That passage goes on to add a variety of things that are the will of the Lord. One is to be filled with the Spirit. Then it ends with “giving thanks always and for everything to God the Father in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, submitting to one another out of reverence for Christ.”

Complaining and wanting trials to go away is far easier than being thankful or looking for God’s hand in the trials, but because Jesus is my Savior and because He loves me, thankfulness for all things is wisdom.

PRAY: Lord, I look back at the worst trials and sorrows in life and see now how You have used them to keep my focus on You — and to help me see that having my eyes on You is important to being transformed into Your likeness — and being transformed is the will of God for me. How foolish I would be to drop thankfulness and refuse to accept that You use all things for my good.

He wants His Best for me

 

 

Five of us played a game last night called “Pick Your Poison” in which we were required to decide the worst of two evils. Some were silly, like having your nose upside down, but others demanded more thought, like waking up every day without knowing who you are.

As we played, I remembered God’s glorious promises concerning my WELL-BEING and how His definition of what is good is not the same as most people would define it. That thought helped me with choices in that game as I asked myself which ‘poison’ God could use to make me more like Jesus. After all, that is His goal for me.

Romans 8:28–29. "And we know that for those who love God all things work together for good, for those who are called according to his purpose. For those whom he foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the image of his Son, in order that he might be the firstborn among many brothers."

That is the greatest well-being I know and not limited to NT teaching. God has always wanted the best for His people. Several verses in Deuteronomy say it: “Therefore you shall keep his statutes and his commandments, which I command you today, that it may go well with you and with your children after you . . . . “And the Lord commanded us to do all these statutes, to fear the Lord our God, for our good always . . . .” and “What does the Lord your God require of you, but to fear the Lord your God, to walk in all his ways, to love him, to serve the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul, and to keep the commandments and statutes of the Lord, which I am commanding you today for your good?”

The psalmists said it too: “Who is the man who fears the Lord? Him will he instruct in the way that he should choose. His soul shall abide in well-being, and his offspring shall inherit the land” and “For the righteous will never be moved; he will be remembered forever. He is not afraid of bad news; his heart is firm, trusting in the Lord. His heart is steady; he will not be afraid, until he looks in triumph on his adversaries.”

Jeremiah 29 says: “For I know the plans I have for you, declares the Lord, plans for welfare and not for evil, to give you a future and a hope. Then you will call upon me and come and pray to me, and I will hear you. You will seek me and find me when you seek me with all your heart. I will be found by you, declares the Lord, and I will restore your fortunes . . . .”

As for the NT, Jesus did say in Matthew 10:34–35, “Do not think that I have come to bring peace to the earth. I have not come to bring peace, but a sword. For I have come to set a man against his father, and a daughter against her mother, and a daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law.”

However, this is a clue to the difference between His definition of well-being and ours. It comes out more in John 14:27: “Peace I leave with you; my peace I give to you. Not as the world gives do I give to you. Let not your hearts be troubled, neither let them be afraid” and John 16:33: “I have said these things to you, that in me you may have peace. In the world you will have tribulation. But take heart; I have overcome the world.”

Here Jesus says that the opposite of well-being or security is not affliction and other external problems but being troubled and anxious when affliction comes. His idea of well-being is letting His peace rule my heart (Colossians 3:15) and being thankful, as in . . .

Philippians 4:7. And the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.

This well-being is not identical to external affairs. They can be terrible, but in them, if I learn the lesson of James 1:2–4, I will experience a well-being that the world knows nothing about:

“Count it all joy, my brothers, when you meet trials of various kinds, for you know that the testing of your faith produces steadfastness. And let steadfastness have its full effect, that you may be perfect and complete, lacking in nothing.”

GAZE INTO HIS GLORY. In that crazy game we played, if the choice was not obvious, I asked God for wisdom (see James 1:5) so I could pick the ‘poison’ He could use for my well-being, something that sounded awful but would develop Christlikeness in me. This made the game more meaningful, and I’ve been thinking about it in every situation since!