Personally, as a husband and dad... I know, that I'll take a
greater leap of faith with my own life than I ever will with the lives of my
family. There are plenty of things I've done; and may do again, that I think long
and hard about before I'd let my kids do it. There are also a lot of things
I'll sit through before I'd ever recommend it to someone else. I mean, if I take
a chance on something and it wasted my time then I've only blown a few hours in
my day, but if I recommend something and it doesn't pan out like I said or the
other person hates my recommendation, well then I've got my reputation on the
line, our friendship might become strained, my word carries less weight. And what
I've learned through this personality issue is the difference between endurance and influence! In other words...
I'm willing to endure
much more chance than I'm willing to influence others to accept.
And spiritually, many people are caught right here. When it
comes to faith, when it comes to asking someone to bring their pains and
burdens before the Lord... we freeze, right here in this personality issue.
When someone comes to you, as a friend, co-worker, family member and begins to
share with you something that is overwhelming, or something that is going to
leave a wound in their life... you come to this choice. Should I use my
opinions? Or will I turn to God's wisdom and allow His truth to be spoken into
their life?
This conflict begins for many people inside the church with this
though, "Yes, I'm a Christian and I know that when someone gets sick that
you pray and that God, the great physician, will heal them... (and publicly,
we shout amen and tell the church about our faith and how we know God's going
to heal them... but deep inside we wonder... is He going to heal them, is He
going to answer my prayer the way I prayed it or will He do something else?!?)
So when someone from the community or the workplace has a sick loved
one or is going through a tough time financially, or a crisis in their home
life... we are caught deciding, do I
really believe what I'm supposed to say?!? I know I'm suppose to tell them
that God's in control, that God will heal or restore or fix whatever they have
wrong in their life... but I've watched prayers go up and on one day the
situation is completely restored... and the next day I watched prayers go up
and the situation fall completely apart.
This internal conflicts creates the mindset, "I believe in
God and I'm willing to endure what feels like chance when it comes to prayer
but I can't influence someone to endure the same random level of chance in
their time of crisis."
OR maybe the situation in front of you is a friend, co-workers,
or family member who is making decisions contrary to God's word and then they
come looking for your support?!? They want us to agree with their choices and
choose them... over any moral convictions we may have due to our faith.
Bringing us to the question...
Am I willing to trust God's wisdom and accept His authority
enough to share His word with the world around me?
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