"People make God's will harder than it needs to be. It is not primarily a device for deciding details. (Where do I live? What college do I choose? Whom do I marry? Should I drink Pepsi or Coke?) God's will is more about finding out about God. Jesus simply summed up God's will for your life when He said: 'And you must love the Lord you God with all your heart, all your soul, all your mind, and all your strength.... [and] love your neighbor as your self' (Mark 12:30-31). That's it no secret formula. No list of 'pros and cons.' Just staying focused on God. The details and decisions of your life will fall into place if your heart is in the right place--and that's what 'God's will' is all about. Remember that God's will is not so much a function of time and place as it is an attitude of the heart."
I dislike this text because it has a low view of sin and this creates a misconception about the Christian life.
Romans 3:10-18
As it is written, "None is righteous, no, not one;
No one understands;
No one seeks for God;
All have turned aside, together they have become worthless.
No one does good, not even one.
Their throat is an open grave;
They use their tongues to deceive.
The venom of apses is under their lips.
Their mouth is full of bitterness and courses.
There feet are swift to shed blood;
In their paths are ruin and misery.
And the way of peace they have not known.
There is no fear of God before their eyes.
It would seem to twist the text to say that this is not the experience of believers. For None=None, No one= No one, All=All. This text shouldn't sunrise us at all if we consider the verse quoted in the text.
"And you must love the Lord you God with all your heart, all your soul, all your mind, and all your strength.... [and] love your neighbor as your self."
The is good and holy and just, but it is deadly when sin uses it. For sin makes us utterly incapable of loving the Lord with all our heart, mind and soul for one second. If you wish to please go read the Romans text again as you missed the entire point. Thus the text thus creates the misconception that everything will fall into place if our heart is right with God. This has two problems.
1) Our hearts are never right with God, even our best actions are flawed (see Romans text above).
2) The Christian life is one of great struggle, need for repentance and fasting.
This way the falling into place of the Christian life is an unrealistic and dangerous choice of words for those who God through his tender love has sent trials of immense proportions to them. Things may 'fall into place' but they may fall into place after facing difficulties of many kinds and after much prayer. Where do I live? What college do I choose? Whom do I marry? Should I drink Pepsi or Coke? All of these things listed (well accept the last its ridiculous to place with the others) can and often are long and difficult decisions for many. Just loving God does not bring the difficulty out of life and make everything fall into place. Things often bang, scratch, and crash into place in our lives even for those who walk with God.
3 comments:
Hey Danny, I know you probably won't read this, becasue you say you never read comments but I hope you do read this. Thanks for sharing your thoughts on this little devotional that I posted the other day. It maybe nice for you to know that I come from a different denomination which does not stress sin as much as the CRC. Therefore, when reading this passage, I did not automatically think about sin's role in our lives connected to God's will etc. However, I'm glad you did and was challenged by your thoughts. I appreciate your thoughtful view of sin taken from Romans.
It is true that the Christian life is one with many trials and temptations and I'm glad you point that out. It is true that these decisions (well besides the pepsi/coke decision which was just a bit of corny lighthearted humor that this devotional uses) take time and are often difficult, painfully hard decisions.
I think this devotional is not talking about sin, (which you might find ignorant of it). But instead it says that staying focused on God, or in otherwords (delighting in God through prayer and his word) can help us know Him and his will, and that will help us make those decisions).... Not that things will come easily all of a sudden if we love God. This devotional does not say that the Christian life is easy but instead, it challenges us to have an authentic relationship with the Lord (the right attitude) which means admiting our sins and asking for repentance. Maybe I'm still missing something...?
Although I agree with you that we can never be right with God, I think you will agree that it is good to remember too what Christ died on the cross for. His will is complete because of what Christ did on the Cross. In fact I really like what verse 20 of Romans 3 says: "Therefore no one will be declared righteous in his sight by observing the law; rather, through the law we become conscious of sin." Because no one could observe the Law perfectly, God sent his son to die for our sins.
When you say we can't love the Lord our God with all our heart, soul, or mind, it is because sin gets in the way... right? If that is the greatest commandment, then no one can do it becasue we all sin... why then would one even try? And how do you think Christ fits into all of this? Feel free to explain this further if you get the chance. :0)
I truly am thankful that you posted this, it really did make me think. Thanks!
I wasn't offended in any way. In fact liked what you said! I'm really glad you wrote what you did about it and am blessed that you disagreed because it made me wrestle with what I thought about it. thankyou!
God bless you too and have a wonderful summer as well! :0D
~ Sarah
I hope I didn't offend you in my long comment above... I am still learning about this whole faith thing, like everyone else is I suppose, so if things didn't make sense or you thought I was being rude, please forgive me. Again, I'm glad that you challenged the devotional and looked at it in a new light... :0) Have a nice rest of your sunday! ~ SG
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