Purpose

Where the Spirit Leads

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One of the challenges with the Christian life is that it is easy to be sincere about wanting to do God’s will and to at times be confused about what precisely He is calling us to do. Of course, there are some situations that aren’t like that at all; there are times when Scripture is explicit about what a child of God should do. However, in the daily course of events as we make decisions about what job we should take, who we should marry, or the school that we should enroll our kids in, the Bible contains some general principles but doesn’t provide explicit instructions that allow us to determine between two good and godly choices. We find ourselves confused and conflicted – not wanting to make the “wrong” decision but unsure what the right one is.

Oftentimes, when faced with these situations we are tempted to make the choice based on our expectations of what decision will be easier for us or will produce the greatest return in our life. It is important to remember during these times, that God doesn’t promise the Christian that His way will be the easy way. In fact, His promise is that those who follow Him will face difficulties (Jn 16:33). This doesn’t mean that we actively go looking for the path that promises the most pain and discomfort, but it does mean that we can’t avoid it either if that is the path that God wants us to walk.

When considering this, it is instructive to look at Jesus’ temptation. As you are probably familiar with, Jesus went into the wilderness and for forty days and nights He fasted. During this time, the Devil sought to prompt Him to sin. It was at the end of His time that Satan leveled the most provocative attacks – encouraging Christ to take care of His physical needs, to demonstrate His deity, and to take the “easy” route to establishing His Kingdom. Christ, in His wisdom, refuted every temptation, using the Word of God to do so. Christ made it clear that His reliance was on God the Father and He would not do anything to thwart His purposes.

It’s interesting though to look at how Jesus ended up in the wilderness. Luke 4:1 states that He was led there by the Spirit. God the Father knew what Satan would attempt while Jesus was in solitude and seclusion, yet it was still His will to send Him there. He knew that at the start of His ministry, it was important that Christ demonstrated His complete reliance on His Heavenly Father. If we were scripting it, we might have thought that Christ’s public ministry should have begun with a display of His power. God determined that it should begin with a display of His dependence.

Interestingly enough, when Jesus leaves the time of His wilderness temptation, Luke tells us that He did so “in the power of the Spirit” (Lk. 4:14). Both the start of His temptation and the start of His public ministry were directed by the Spirit’s hand. While we may be prone to rush into the latter and to avoid the other, Jesus knew that following the path that God had prepared was what was most important – whether that led wilderness temptation or to teaching in the synagogues and “being glorified by all” (Lk. 4:15). It wasn’t the easiness of the situation that determine the rightness of the call. It was based solely on God’s purpose and plan for Him.

In the same vein, next time we are faced with a situation where we aren’t sure what to do, may we not be inclined to look at what is easiest or what we most desire, but may our heart’s cry to go where the Spirit leads. May we rely on God’s direction for our life – trusting that even in the “valley of the shadows of death” He is there beside His children  – providing the comfort and the power that they need to overcome the Devil’s schemes (See Ps. 23:4). May our commitment be to serve Him and HIs purposes – regardless of the steepness of the path –  and to do so in a manner that pleases Him.

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Relationships

Defining Roles

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Actors and actresses are often discussed in terms of their most noted roles. It may be that they are remembered for a particular movie or character that first made them part of the national conscious. Or it may be that although their reputation had already been established, a particular role made their audience view them in a new light, deepening their appreciation for the actor’s artistic talents.  We say that these roles “defined” their careers – and we look at them as turning points in their body of work.

In Christian circles there is a lot a talk about defining roles, although this differs significantly from what we mean when we talk about our favorite actors. This discussion is usually about marriage and the debate between what Scripture says about the roles of husband and wives and what our own inclinations or cultural mores dictate. Words like egalitarian and complementarian are bantered about as we wrestle with the fact that although in Christ “there is no male and female” (Gal. 3:28), Scripture discusses the expectations for husbands and wives differently (See Eph. 5:22-33; Col. 3:18-19; I Peter 3:1-7). There is often a conflict between our expectations of marriage and the reality that we experience. As we struggle to resolve this tension, our desire to honor Christ often is subjugated to our own self interests and concerns.

However, when Paul was writing to the Colossae church about the the different roles we have (specifically as spouses, as parents, as children, and as workers/slaves), he reminded them that they needed to defined their role not in terms of other people, but in terms of their service to the Lord Jesus Christ (Col 3:24).  Although Paul’s proclamation that we are servants of the Lord is often discussed only in terms of what type of employee we should therefore be,  in reality the same concept can be applied to all the preceding roles that Paul mentions. We should serve our spouses (through demonstrating love and respect), our children (through training them in the way that they should go and doing the hard work of teaching and correcting them)  our parents (through honoring them) and our employers (through working hard) first and foremost because we are servants of Christ.  There is an “indirect” nature to our service of Christ which means serving Him often means serving other people well, regardless of how they treat us. This may mean that we are not treated in “the way we deserve,” yet it is important to remember that neither was our Lord (John 14:20). There is no room to view our relationships in terms of a quid pro quo (for example – I’ll show my husband respect, when he does a better job of showing me love) because ultimately the other person is not the object of our service – Christ is. Instead of defining our value in terms of whether or not our relationships provide the fulfillment and satisfaction we think we have earned, we should evaluate them in light of eternity. “Servant of Christ” should be our defining role and how we behave in any of our other roles should be subjugated to that definition.

This isn’t easy. Our pride will constantly buck against this. Yet the more we define ourselves in light of our servitude to Christ, and not in terms of any other characterizations, the more we will honor Him through each and every thing we do.

 

(Author’s Note – It is worth noting that if someone doesn’t treat us in the “way we deserve” and it violates the laws of the land – that person should be held accountable for their actions. Because we answer to Christ does not mean that others we interact with should not answer to the civil authorities. Although this becomes an issue only in the most extreme circumstances, because those circumstances exist, it is worth noting specifically in a discussion about the way we treat one another in marriage.)

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