About my post yesterday on individualism vs. doing God's will
Got an email from a reader, Nigel, yesterday:
In a recent post at RLW you said, "I want to do God's will, give myself completely to Him, however on the other hand, I resist any concept of anyone else telling me what God's will is for me - though I will admit its possibility."It seems to me that there is a certain confusion possible here, although perhaps it is just the phrasing. When an other person tries to tell me what God's will is, I listen politely, and pray to the Lord that He will open my heart for any message He is try to get to me thru this person. Then I check what they have to say with the Lord, both in prayer and in the Bible. I would be reluctant to say that *I* am the final determiner of God's will for me, rather He is that, and listening to others is good in that it helps me remember not to trust my own heart.
Jeremiah 17:9-10 The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked; Who can know it? I, the Lord, search the heart, I test the mind, even to give every man according to his ways, according to the fruit of his doings.
Nigel is right, and I, as a new Christian, am learning the truth of this, slowly and surely. When I became a Christian, less than two years ago, I was pretty firmly committed to individualism. I had to start learning to do things God's way; indeed, there was an issue I gave to God right away, surrendering a bit of stubborn rebelliousness right away. As I grow in my Christian walk, I hear my pastor at my church preach about showing more love for our neighbor, using, as one example, Jesus's parable of the sheep and goats in Matthew 25. Two years ago, I wouldn't have had anything to do with that, but now, I'm finding myself willing to do more and more as I surrender to God's will. I have some serious issues with the social activist groups telling me what God's will is, such as the recent "What Would Jesus Drive?"; I believe they are just using God's name to promote their special interests, but when it comes to doing real things for real people, I'm opening up and telling God "here I am, send me!" more than I did when I was a new Christian.
Posted by joelfuhrmann at December 4, 2002 09:33 PM