In a passage that tells servants to obey their masters, even those who treat them harshly, God answers a problem I’m having—two thousand years later.
While I don’t have a master, I often feel like a slave. This isn’t all the time—but this week my attitude shifted from that of a servant motivated by love who does good for others to a doormat motivated by ‘what about my rights’ who sees others taking advantage of me.
Whoa! I know that people think the difference between these two positions has more to do with the treatment of other people, not my attitude toward that treatment, but I am learning that is not so. The person that I serve has not changed one iota during the entire time. No matter what I do, she is behaving and thinking the same today as she always has.
Maybe that is the problem. I want change. I’ve hoped that my kindness toward her produces change. It isn’t happening.
Instead, God is again telling me to change. This is what I read this morning from 1 Peter 2:19-23:
“For this is commendable, if because of conscience toward God one endures grief, suffering wrongfully. For what credit is it if, when you are beaten for your faults, you take it patiently? But when you do good and suffer, if you take it patiently, this is commendable before God. For to this you were called, because Christ also suffered for us, leaving us an example, that you should follow His steps: ‘Who committed no sin, nor was deceit found in His mouth’; who, when He was reviled, did not revile in return; when He suffered, He did not threaten, but committed Himself to Him who judges righteously.”
His words jump out at me, specifically these words: endures, patiently, do good, commit it to Him who judges righteously.
I feel like arguing with God, but that never gets me anywhere. He knows what is going on. He sees her heart and mine. He is quite capable of changing her to be more thankful, less thoughtless, more inclined to do something good in return. I know that, but I also know that He has His reasons for not changing her. Could it be that He wants to use her contrary spirit to take a whack at mine?
Jesus never fought back when people treated Him badly or unfairly. Instead, He did good things and trusted the results to His Father, even when those results were not very pleasant or even seemed terribly contrary to the will of God.
I’ve been through this ‘exam’ before, even with the same person. I know that it is not right to allow someone to sin against me. If I were being physically abused or something like that, genuine love for others would stop the other person from doing such a thing, not so much for my sake but for theirs. However, genuine love has to be free from all self-centered motives. God is concerned that I learn how to love that way, that I be like Jesus and be free from selfish reasons for what I do.
I’d like His priority to be that person. I’d like Him to ‘fix’ what seems to be extreme selfishness. She seems to take advantage of the good way she is treated, and I have started to resent her for it.
But God has another priority, at least for now. He is asking me to change my attitude, to ride it out, to go back to being patient, and just commit myself to Him. He knows. He will take care of that other person as soon as He is done taking care of me.
Yesterday I read about Hannah who wanted a baby and prayed for its birth. Today my reading moves forward a few hundred years to Mary, who was single, not likely thinking about babies, but finds out that she is about to become pregnant with the Son of God.
The virgin birth is a cardinal doctrine of Christian faith. If Jesus was born in the usual manner, He could not be God in human flesh. If He were not God in human flesh, He would have sin of His own to answer for (since sin is part of the human condition), and He could not die for the sins of others. If He could not die for our sin, we would have to pay its price ourselves.
Just an insert here—sin, by Bible definition, is not just the big things like murder and robbery, but simply turning from God to do our own thing, not believing what God says to form our own views. If anyone thinks we are not all sinners, they already have turned from God because God says we are!
Mary was also a sinner, but she was also trusting God and not turning her back on Him. She believed what He said and lived according to His teachings. Even so, I can’t imagine how she felt when the angel came to tell her that she was about to become a mother, and no ordinary mother. This baby would be born without her ‘knowing’ a man (they used euphemisms back then too), and was reminded that “with God nothing will be impossible.”
Mary was in a tough spot. Not only would she face the stigma of a baby conceived out of wedlock, but Joseph would know that the child was not his. She would be accused of adultery, an offense at that time that was punishable by stoning.
The Bible doesn’t say she had any choice in the matter, however, her remarkable response showed her yielded spirit. She was not set against God nor determined to go her own way, even with this. Instead, she said, “Let it be to me according to Your word.”
Maybe the Lord picked her because He knew she was a godly young woman, one who trusted Him. The Bible says she had found favor with God, but that does not mean she was perfect. Some think she was sinless like her Son, but there is no biblical evidence that Mary was any different from any other person, other than she believed in God and obeyed Him. She had fears, doubts, joys and sorrows. She was born with a sinful bent just like the rest of us, but God had shaped her life and worked in her heart. He made her ready to be the one who would have this experience, and ready to respond to the news with a willing heart.
What I learn from Mary is just that. God brings things into my life, and while none are even close to being this momentous, He still wants that attitude of heart that says, “Whatever You ask, whatever You want; let it be to me according to Your Word.”
As I return to ‘normal life’ after a creative high in the Rocky Mountains, I have to ask the Lord what He wants me to do with what I have experienced and learned. I’ve the beginning of a piece that excites me. I could abandon most of my other creative pursuits and take this direction, but not without first knowing if doing so is within the will of God.
Years ago, I painted wildlife and earned enough money to partly support myself. It was a passion for me, but in my early Christian life, it slipped into an idolatry. I worshiped what I was doing more than the God who gave me the ability to do it.
The Lord asked me to give it up. After much argument and agonizing, I did that, and even though He gave me many other creative outlets, there was never the opportunity or direction to go back to that.
In the past few years, it tugs at me again. I’ve gone into the art supply department of a store, or to a gallery, and felt such a longing that it brought tears to my eyes. On all those occasions, the practical side of me knew that there is no way to fit anything more into my life, and the spiritual side knew that unless God is in this, I cannot start anything or restart where I left off.
However, quilting and teaching quilting has been at His direction. Through this creative activity, I’ve met new people, learned new skills, and had wonderful fellowship with other believers. This past week, at Quilt Art Rockies, the sense of God’s blessing and presence never left me in the two workshops I attended and while I worked on two separate projects. One evening lecture moved my heart so much that I could hardly speak of it afterward. She covered principles of good art, a topic I know, and how it applies to quilt making. Again, I felt the tugging on my heart. Of course I am asking God what I’m to do with all this, and do expect Him to show me.
This morning I read the story of Hannah. She was barren and in sorrow and grief, she asked the Lord to give her a child. In her request, she told God that if He did, she would give him back to Him, to serve Him all the days of his life.
God answered her prayer and Samuel was born. When he was just a little child, Hannah and her husband took him to the priest, Eli, and she “lent him to the Lord as long as he lives.”
At that point, Hannah prayed. She said: “My heart rejoices in the Lord; my horn is exalted in the Lord. I smile at my enemies, because I rejoice in Your salvation. No one is holy like the Lord, for there is none besides You, nor is there any rock like our God.”
She continues for several verses. Her prayer is joyful and filled with praise for the righteousness and power of the Lord her God. He had given her the child that she longed for, and she gave him back to Him.
In my heart, the Holy Spirit makes a connection. In my case, the longing is not for a child but for the go-ahead concerning creative expression (and a change in my life to make it feasible). My prayer is not one of grief and a sense of loss as it once was when this part of me became more important than God. Instead, I am asking for the same thing, but I can now focus on the wonder of God. He makes us in His image, and because of that, we are creative people. I am able to celebrate that and rejoice in Him because of it. My attitude has changed. Instead of thinking of this skill as ‘mine’ and mine to do with as I wish, I know where it comes from and why it cannot be idolized.
This morning, I see that anything God gives me not only comes from Him, but must be given back to Him. Samuel was His. My ability, and even my desire for creative expression are His too. The process, the journey, the results, all of it, belongs to Him and must be released to Him, not reluctantly and in shame for making it an idol, but with joy and praise. Whatever I am and can do belongs to God and what happens is entirely up to Him.
This does not constitute a “Yes, go for it” at this point, but the sacrifice of Hannah and the joy in her prayer add a dimension to the desires of my heart. I realize I must let Him poke and prod my heart and expose my motives. He alone knows if I am totally willing to let go of the selfishness of ‘self-expression’ and do this His way, in His time, and for His glory.
