Listen for Him
“For God knows that when you eat from
it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil.”
– Genesis 3:5
“Son of man, say to the ruler of Tyre,
‘This is what the Sovereign LORD says:
‘“In the pride of your heart you say,
“I am a god; I sit on the throne of a god in the heart of the seas.”
But you are a mere mortal and not a
god, though you think you are as wise as a god.”’ – Ezekiel 28:2
From the very beginning, we’ve been trying to pretend
we’re like God. We think we can be smart and know all things. Arrogance and the
devil tells us we can.
We can’t, of course. Just as the serpent led Eve to
destruction, so will he lead us to destruction as well. It’s that arrogance
that tells us to disregard God’s rules and focus on our own wants and desires.
I was in a church meeting recently where a
controversial topic was being discussed. We weren’t making decisions or even
voicing personal opinions. We were there to learn about the various options and
what they might mean for us two months from now.
That said, body language clearly revealed the sides
that are forming. It is not going to be pleasant. Some people have set their
beliefs in stone. They’ll gladly pull out Scripture to back those beliefs up.
Both sides, I might add.
That’s how it is with controversy. Everyone thinks
they know God’s true will better than anyone else. We tell ourselves that over
and over again. It helps us stand firm in what we believe, whether it is truly
God’s will or not
The hard truth is that some things make us
uncomfortable. We don’t want to read what God says about welcoming foreigners
into our land. We’d rather pull out the passage about obeying the law. Which is
right and which is wrong? Maybe both views are right and both views are wrong.
Our churches are facing some hard issues. There are no
easy answers. But there are a few basic things we should remember. God is love,
would be the first thing. Jesus told us the greatest commandment was to love
God above all else and the second was to love our neighbors as ourselves. When
we get those two things in the correct order, everything else falls into place.
Before we left that day, one committee member said
something really basic and totally true. He told everyone not to spend the next
two months fretting over what might or might not happen. He suggested that
instead we spend that time in prayer, asking the Holy Spirit to provide discernment
and for the delegates to be led to vote however God would have them vote.
We don’t know what’s the best direction in this situation,
no matter how much we might think we do. We aren’t God. What we don’t know far
outweighs what we think we do know.
My friend offered all of us wise advice. The question
now is whether we can get over ourselves long enough to actually pray and
listen for God’s voice or whether we’re going to be so focused on what we “know”
that we miss Him in the midst of it all.
