Living in the Light

08/24/2004

There are times in our lives when tough decisions need to be made. There are times when those around us have their ideas about what we should do, and in those times, we need God more than ever. We need to go to God and ask Him what He would have us do.

I recently experienced one of those times in my life and only with prayer and focus on what is true and right could I make a decision that would honor God above all else. Due to the nature of this decision and the people involved, I will not reveal all the intimate details of this story, but I will attempt with God’s help to instead share the lessons learned and the call to obedience that we all find ourselves in at different times in our lives.

The "carrot" dangled in front of me... the easy solution to what appeared to be a very big problem was right there... all I had to do was reach out and grab it... that was all... but what was God calling me to do? That was the ultimate question at hand. I found myself in a position where it seemed the "world" was on one side of me and God was on the other.

God has brought me to a place where I am seeing His many blessings. I am learning to depend on Him and follow Him through the fiery trials of life, and yet the temptation to bend to the will of the Enemy just this once, to seemingly "solve" the problem at hand, was so great. It seemed the Enemy was sparing no expense on this one, he was pulling out all the stops. Arrows were coming at me from directions I never would have expected. It seemed if one tactic of the Enemy didn’t work, he completely changed direction and used another one even more clever, even more deceptive. I was torn, and yet one thought kept running through my mind, "Stand firm... stand firm..."

"Oh, but God, if I just grab for that carrot this will all be over, I can get on with things as planned and not have to think about this anymore. Oh God, can’t I please grab the carrot and be done...?"

And yet I knew in my heart, I could not. God’s call was to obedience above all else. Obedience above every deceptive, deceitful tactic that the Enemy would use to distract me. Obedience. No matter what. He was calling me to stand firm...

And so I stood. I knew that it might mean some would turn their backs on me, some would desert me, some would be angry with me. I knew that grabbing for the carrot would save me from all of this, but if I did reach for it...what consequences, what discipline, what plans would God then have for me as His child?

I have felt the hand of discipline on my life. It is not pleasant. I have experienced what disobedience brings me in my life. It can be very painful. I have been there and back, and I knew that if I failed this test at this place, at this time in my life, I might have to go around this mountain more than once until God shapes me into the image that He desires.

Since you have heard all about him and have learned the truth that is in Jesus,
throw off your old evil nature and your former way of life, which is rotten
through and through, full of lust and deception. Instead, there must be a spiritual
renewal of your thoughts and attitudes. You must display a new nature because
you are a new person, created in God’s likeness—righteous, holy and true.
Ephesians 4:21-24 (NLT)

I am not the person I once was. I am a new person. This world does not hold the attraction for me that it once did. I have seen the fire in the loss of our son and I have felt the heat, and I have also felt the great peace and joy that is only possible when walking closely with God each day. I have no desire to go back, to go around any mountain again and again unless it is absolutely necessary for what God would have me learn.

But, does the choice really become mine... do I get to choose how many times I will go around the same mountain? Very possibly. We are here to learn and to grow in the wisdom of God, not to live like the rest of the world that is separated from God.

Once you were dead, doomed forever because of your many sins. You used
to live just like the rest of the world, full of sin, obeying Satan, the mighty
prince of the power of the air. He is the spirit at work in the hearts of those
who refuse to obey God. All of us used to live that way, following the passions
and desires of our evil nature. We were born with an evil nature, and we were
under God’s anger just like everyone else.
Ephesians 2:2-3 (NLT)

There was a time when I did not hear the voice of God, when I had no idea what it meant to be led by the Holy Spirit that lives within each believer. I was busy, doing my own thing, living my own life, and I hate to say it, "obeying Satan." I didn’t know it, I didn’t realize what controlled me, I thought I controlled me. I thought I was in charge. I didn’t understand spiritual warfare that is unseen to the human eye. Those things were beyond my thoughts or my understanding at that time, but they no longer are. I know there are battles raging in the air that I cannot see, but I surely do feel. I know that our lives can be torn apart by them if we are not focused on God’s Truth.

With the Lord’s authority let me say this:
Live no longer as the ungodly do, for they
are hopelessly confused. Their closed minds
are full of darkness; they are far way from
the life of God because they have shut their minds
and hardened their hearts against him.
Ephesians 4:17-18 (NLT)

This is the world we live in, and it’s not easy! The battles rage each day and on some days, we just want the easy way out. We just want to grab for the "carrot" and stop the fighting all around us. Those are the days when our character is tested. Oswald Chambers writes, "My vision of God depends upon the state of my character." He also says, "Over and over again God has to remove our friends in order to bring Himself in their place, and that is where we faint and fail and get discouraged." He goes on to say, "It must be God first, God second, and God third, until the life is faced steadily with God and no one else is of any account whatever."

Now, this may sound harsh. What does he mean, "no one else is of any account whatever." Doesn’t God call us to love one another, to care for one another, to help one another? Of course He does, but this can only truly happen when we love God and obey God above all else. Then the love we gain from God is the love we give away to others. If we are not filled with God’s love, then we have nothing to give away. Without God, what we have is shallow, temperamental and conditional. It will fail when fires rage!! It will disintegrate into a pile of ashes and we will choose hate over love when put to the test.

Sometimes because of love, we are called to stand in the crossfire, to take the sting for someone else. Sometimes we are called to be like Job in the Bible. We will take a stand for God and even our friends will turn on us and accuse us of wrongdoing. We must Stand Firm as I wrote in this recent song I sent to my brother.

(It awaits the music he will put with it.)

Stand Firm

It’s not a battle against those that we can see
The enemy does his best to deceive
He’s hidden in the darkness disguised there as the light
We’ll need all of God’s armor to begin this fight
Walking in the shoes of readiness filled with the peace of God
Yielding the shield of faith to prove he is a fraud

Chorus
Then we’ll stand firm in God’s armor though the fires rage each day
We’ll stand firm on all occasions if we will only pray
The Holy Spirit’s power is released through every prayer
And the enemy’s defeated for with God we are prepared

God will fight this battle that rages in the air
When we stay persistent in our prayers
He’ll conquer those mighty powers of darkness we can’t see
With the sturdy belt of truth, the Spirit’s sword sets us free
We need the body armor of righteousness each day
Putting on the helmet of salvation and as we begin to pray

Chorus
Then we’ll stand firm in God’s armor though the fires rage each day
We’ll stand firm on all occasions if we will only pray
The Holy Spirit’s power is released through every prayer
And the enemy’s defeated for with God we are prepared

While working on this song with my brother, he related a story to me about a dad driving along with his children in the car. A bee entered the car and the children were afraid. The dad grabbed the bee and held it in his hand until it stung him, then he let it go. It was no longer a threat to his children. He told them of how Jesus had taken the sting for us so that we did not need to fear. Having recently felt that "sting," for another while standing firm, I appreciated hearing that story. Our sting, whatever it is we face in life, will never compare to what Jesus felt as He was "stung" on the Cross for our sins.

Awhile back, I was camping with my best friend in the Redwoods along the coast of California. As we hiked through those giant trees we noticed that a fire had come through that area at some time in the past. There was evidence on the trees that had survived. On a couple of the trees we noticed that the charred blackness went up as high as possibly 15 to 20 feet--and yet the trees were still there, alive and doing well. They were scarred from the past, but they withstood the test of fire that had passed their way. Some had been there for over 400 years, and yet they stood firm in their place, right where God had put them. Can we as human beings ever come close to that kind of strength? Only with God’s strength inside will we stay standing when fires rage.

As my friend and I sat by our campfire and enjoyed the warmth of the flames that were safely contained, we also realized the damage that this same fire can do when it gets out of control. How quickly all that was around us could be destroyed except for the strongest, mightiest trees in the forest. God preserves a chosen few of them through the years.

What if our character is like those trees? What if with God’s strength we do stand firm as the fires rage, but at the same time witness others being burned up in the temptations of life? Do we make the choice to jump in and burn up with them, or do we stand on the solid foundation God has built in our own lives, even if it means when the fire is over, we are standing there alone, or with only the few mighty "Redwoods" left that reached up into heaven and grabbed hold of God’s Hand through the flames?

The Bible says:

Follow God’s example in everything you do, because you are his dear children.
Live a life filled with love for others, following the example of Christ, who loved
you and gave himself as a sacrifice to take away your sins. And God was pleased,
because that sacrifice was like sweet perfume to him.
Ephesians 5:1-2

Those Redwoods smelled so good...the sky was so blue, the animals freely roamed through the trees, and birds woke us in the morning with many different chirps and wood-pecking and squawking. We were in God’s presence under those trees, along those streams, and it was good. Jehovah Shalom—The Lord My Peace, was evident all around. There was no "fire" on this day.

God’s Word says:

...be careful how you live, not as fools but as those who are wise.
Make the most of every opportunity for doing good in these evil days.
Don’t act thoughtlessly, but try to understand what the Lord wants
you do to. Don’t be drunk with wine, because that will ruin your life.
Instead, let the Holy Spirit fill and control you.
Ephesians 5:15-18 (NLT)

We don’t always know what the Lord wants us to do in every given situation, but I wonder, can it be as easy as the much used "slogan" in our midst right now..."What Would Jesus Do?" It seems almost childish, but I think it can be just that. A childlike question, "What Would Jesus Do?" and a simple answer, He would Love above all else.

When we don’t love others, what happens? We fall into Satan’s trap. We let ourselves be buried under feelings of anger, bitterness and unforgiveness. People we should be loving, get hurt. People who should be loving us, and don’t, hurt us. Emotional hurt becomes the bottom line, but sometimes we don’t realize the hurt that has been inflicted right away because we feel angry and the anger is easier to deal with--we think we have a "right" to it.

The anger is an attempt to cover our vulnerability, it is something we can control...or so we think. But if we admit that we are actually hurt more than angry, what will we do with that when it makes us feel vulnerable, weak and unable to control the situation? When we feel they have gotten the better of us? As flesh and blood, that goes against our very nature. Our very nature, but what about our "new nature," the one created in God’s likeness--The one that should be "righteous, holy and true"? What then?

Then we can hear our call to obedience. This is it!! This has always been "it." Because in our obedience, we can stand firm in the hurt, we can withstand the pain inflicted by the world around us and not strike back in anger. When our hearts are obedient to God, He will see us through anything we must face. We can be at peace in the storms, and feel loved even when the world is not "loving us," even when the world is hurting us. His love is greater than any hurt this world can inflict.

It is said, "Hurting people hurt people." But we don’t have to fall into that trap when we allow God to carry us through the fire. And I mean through it, it does not mean there will not be tears and questions and even small "pity parties" along the way, but we will be in the arms of God and He will see us through to the end. He will teach us how to have self-control by filling us with it, and how to love the unlovely by filling us with His love. He will be our strength. When we emerge out of the flames, we will have grown, we will have learned and we will be even better prepared to meet the next situation that may come up in our lives, and it will!

Try to find out what is pleasing to the Lord.
Take no part in the worthless deeds of evil
and darkness; instead, rebuke and expose them.
It is shameful even to talk about the things that
ungodly people do in secret. But when the light
shines on them, it becomes clear how evil these
things are. And where your light shines, it will
expose their evil deeds. This is why it is said,
"Awake, O sleeper,
rise up from the dead,
and Christ will give you light."
Ephesians 5:10-14 (NLT)

We are called to live in the light, and Christ will give us that light. It can be found nowhere else, not in this world. This world will bury us in darkness if we allow it to. We will be sucked into the darkness like quicksand will suck us into the ground. If we do not reach up and grab hold of God’s hand instead of grabbing hold of the "carrot" that tempts us, we will not survive the spiritual battles that surround all of us. We’ll just go down with the carrot!!

Remember that the Lord will reward each one
of us for the good we do, whether we are slaves or free.
Ephesians 6:8 (NLT)

When my life is over, I want it to have been like one of those tall Redwood Trees that my friend and I camped under. I may not be tall in stature, but if I can stand firm each day of my life, God will not let the "elements" of this earth destroy me.

Don’t be fooled by those who try to excuse these sins,
for the terrible anger of God comes upon all those
who disobey him. Don’t participate in the things
these people do. For though your hearts were once
full of darkness, now you are full of light from the Lord,
and your behavior should show it! For this light within you
produces only what is good and right and true.
Ephesians 5:6-9 (NLT)

Obedience to God is not an option. It seems to be an option and we sometimes abuse it as an option, but it is not, not if we want to enjoy our lives the way God is calling us to. God has a perfect plan, we just don’t always want to follow it, and we end up suffering way beyond any discipline that God might deem necessary--Sort of like a child who does not like being told what to do so they go their own way and end up suffering consequences that are far worse than what would have been needed to teach them a better way had they listened to their parents in the first place.

Jesus said:

The thief’s purpose is to steal and kill and destroy.
My purpose is to give life in all its fullness.
John 10:10 (NLT)

If we truly understand this verse, we will not be so easily fooled by the Enemy. We will understand that the Enemy is here to do harm, not to help us. He will destroy whatever he can get his hands on. Jesus came so that we would have a good, fulfilling and joyful life. He wants what is best for us in all situations, but if we refuse to be obedient to His call, then we will live in the consequences of those decisions.

Being obedient does not always change what is, but it does change what is within. Obedience brings us the joy that is available from God each day despite the circumstances of our lives. It is the only true path of peace and I don’t know about you, but I long for that peace. I have experienced that peace on what should have been the worst days of my life, and having tasted it, I crave it, I want more of it and I will put "God first, God second, and God third, until the life is faced steadily with God and no one else is of any account whatever." Then I will truly be able to love others as God calls me to love them and in that love, I will be full of His joy!

Thanks for listening,

Diane