“God is my strong fortress; He has made my way safe.” 2 Sam. 22:33
Are we feeling “safe” in Gods arms? If the answer is yes, praise God…but let’s dig deeper: Are we feeling “safe” because we’re fearfully hiding behind impenetrable walls of our ‘safe houses’ or are we feeling “safe” because we’re living in freedom behind liberty walls of understanding (understanding of ourselves and the world that surrounds us and choosing to walk in the Spirit vs. hiding behind rules that work for us)?
Let’s flesh this out a little: The Lord does not give us an endless list of rules. He makes His standard very clear, and if our relationship to Him is one of wholehearted love, we will do what He says, regardless of our feelings at the moment. If we hesitate, perhaps it’s because we either love someone/thing else in competition with Him, we are fearful, &/or we are self-righteous, and are refusing to live in the Spirit?
As we mature in Christ, we learn what it means to “walk in the Spirit” and we become attune to the Spirit’s promptings in every circumstance/relationship we encounter. And when the Spirit ‘checks our behavior’, we promptly obey. ~~But, heads up: We are wise to understand that unless God clearly defines “this spiritual check” as a “NO” in Scripture, “this check” does NOT necessarily apply to all believers. In other words, in ‘matters of grey’, it is inaccurate to deduce, “If God wants this for me, He must therefore desire this for all believers.” No, this kind of deduction would be choosing to live in fear, judgment and legalism, rather than walking in the Spirit’s wisdom, knowledge, love and understanding. (e.g.: use 1Cor. 6:12 and 1Cor. 10:23-24 as our guide in even in the bedroom!)
Let’s illustrate with an innocuous example:
- Say woman #1 births her child at home with a mid-wife in a few hours, with no drugs, virtually no pain and consequently believes that “this is the way birthing is.”
- Enter woman #2: In the hospital, she births for 36 hours in extreme pain, uses pain suppressant drugs, and ends up having a C-section anyway.
- Woman #1 now forms judgment and believes that woman #2 had a difficult birth because she didn’t have a close enough relationship with God, her husband, &/or the doctor, and therefore, she “tightened up” ~~and the subsequent birthing experience was the sad result. (From her limited vantage point, woman #1 deduces that if woman #2 had had a close relationship with God, her husband and the doctor, and had used no drugs, she would have experienced an easy birth likened to her own.)
~~Some people’s ‘safe houses’ are small; they’re sturdy and impenetrable, and reality is: This ‘safe house’ is good for them and glorious to them! (And we who live in more freedom should not try to poke at their walls.) ~~Where it gets tricky, especially in leadership, is when the person who resides in the ‘safe house’ 1) demands that others build the same kind of house for themselves, and 2) deduces that those that don’t build and live in ‘this kind of safe house’ are therefore a) ungodly &/or spiritually immature, and b) should be dealt with accordingly.
Love’s great foe is pride and fear.
Love’s great friend is humility and understanding.
So why do so many believers design “safe houses” for themselves from which some choose to judge the world and other believers? Many factors…a person’s history, current modeling, etc., but ultimately, we believe it’s because the person who’s making harsh judgments is actually living in pride and fear instead of humility and understanding. We believe God desires all of His kids to live in a “liberty house” full of freedom, guided by His love and holiness! And as we mature in Him, He allows us to experience more and more of this kind of liberty, but He understands that some of us are just not ready for such a house (perhaps until heaven)…and that ‘safe houses’ are good and glorious.
Much love this week,
Shaun and Betsy
