What is it about our nature that just naturally causes us to be rebellious? Mere toddlers loudly express their defiance “NO! NO! NO!” Then as Nora Ephron did, we make this discovery: When your children are teenagers, it’s important to have a dog so that someone in the house is happy to see you. How we allow our feelings to lead us into anger and bitterness and unforgiveness. And, yes, we may be able to justify and rationalize such choices, but the thoughts and reasoning prompting those ideas of being wronged, keep us bound to an internal warring until the meeting out of justice and vengeance is self-determined.
Scriptures tell us to teach and train-up a child in the way they should go, and when they are old, they will not depart from it (Proverbs 22:6). But, as the parable the Lord shared about the “Prodigal Son” reveals, our heart exalts the trinity of me, myself and I whether we are near or a great distance from the Father. Why? The foundation of this fallen nature was established on pridefulness accompanied with fear and deception and condemnation, which generates both internal and external conflicts through the governing of “Self.”
But God, He has given us His all – His Word and His Holy Spirit – so we can move that mountain of perceptions and imaginations, self-reliance and absorption so we can challenge and overcome every impossibility. Yes, every impossibility that prevents us from thinking, from imaging, from receiving, from believing and proclaiming the great and abundant gain of godliness accompanied with Love and Truth and Forgiveness.
We each have a personal gospel we apply that ensures in certain areas our life will become unmanageable and run amuck, causing us to become frantic, confused, desperate, unreasonable, irrational, maybe even delusional. But God, He offers us His Gospel of Peace and Grace and Reconciliation so we can be set upright and our souls can experience true contentment as we begin to apply God’s Word casting our cares, our concerns on the Lord and throwing every defiant stronghold into that lake. Yes, every errant thought, pretention and argument that tries to set itself up against the knowledge, the understanding and wisdom God bestows so our thinking, every word we use will become aligned with and obedient to the Word of Truth (2 Corinthians 10:5).
Yes, throughout every generation these are the words we’ve each determinedly proclaimed, “I’d rather do it myself.” And, after experiencing all the turmoil, hurdles, and dead-ends that resulted from following myself for more than 60 years, at the age of 71 I’ve come to realize in this world all types of trouble will absolutely occur. But, when God’s Word, Christ Jesus, truly infiltrated the depths of my soul into the system of my beliefs, the Truth elevated my thinking and decision-making skills to such a degree that no matter what circumstances may be surrounding me, when what Christ has left to dwell within us – His peace – is disturbed, I know to seek, to grasp, to trust and rely on the Prince of Peace, for Jesus has and will always faithfully provide me with the necessary understanding and wisdom so I can remain in or regain what God has given me – entrance into His rest with the confidence assurance, the peace of mind and heart knowing the Lord has wrapped me securely in the garments of salvation, He takes such great delight in me, He quiets my soul when it gets disturbed with His love. And, He rejoices over me singing songs of deliverance (Zephaniah 3:17).
From Genesis to Revelation our heavenly Father has shared with us the Truth: On the seventh day after the completion of His creation work, God rested, but He has never and will never stop working for the glorious knowledge of Good to be made known throughout the earth. Unfortunately, we are guilty of not only causing our heavenly Father to become weary, but we also nullify – overrule, invalidate, disallow – the Word of God by our own gospel of beliefs – certainties, principles, convictions, opinions, assumptions, feelings, persuasions…that are heavily swayed by our knowledge of evil.
Why? We are governed by what is evil – a prideful, deceitful heart – that works to seek out ways and means to glorify “Self,” by using words to excuse, manipulate, deny, minimize, accuse and blame in order to make the wrong choices and behavior we display reflect good onto “Self.” Though all this error and disorder and deceptiveness is ingrained firmly within our realities allowing our words to create acceptable scenarios, they will not make wrong alter the reflection of what truly is good in the eyes of the Lord. Neither could the words we use to rationalize and justify so too please self, ever be twisted and manipulated to make our mistaken judgments and behavior be pleasing to the Lord (Malachi 2:17).
We may tell people we have found the Lord, but when we have found Him Whom our soul loves then we shall know the Truth, and the Truth shall make us free (John 8:32). When we allow the strength of humility to bolster our confidence to take that first step acknowledging the gift of free-will God has given us makes a human being seem god-like. And though we have lived in opposition to the Word of Truth by following our own understanding, we are willing to do what must be done: The Lord must become greater, and we must become less (John 3:30).