From time to time, many Christians - self included here - seem to get a bit confused. While there are oodles of things to get confused about, the thing that comes to mind at the moment revolves around feelings.
Let me get to something right off the get go here - feelings are not sin. Now that tidbit may either make you nod and agree or stare at the screen like I am some kind of nut. But it is true, regardless of your reaction to that statement.
Now I know (and have known) people who think that, because you are saved, you have to walk around feeling happy all the time. While that does sound lovely, it is hardly realistic. For instance, what if a close family member has passed away suddenly? Are you to feel happy and bubbly during that time of great sorrow? Not bloody likely. And what if you were to go on a missions trip to some place that is in ruins (Haiti currently, for example)? Would you be feeling oh so happy with a big ol' grin on your face when you are surrounded by despair most devastating? Let me ask you this - do you think God smiles when He sees it?
Feelings have little, if anything to do with who we are spiritually speaking. And as I said before, they are not, of themselves, sin or sinful. Now they may be able to add a bit extra to temptation and lead you into sin, but they themselves are not.
Many who know the bible to any extent are familiar with David and they also know that God loved his heart, in spite of his actions. He was totally, openly dependent upon God's grace and mercy. That said, was he happy go lucky all the time? Not a chance! A quick example from Psalm 55 that I can personally relate to - verses 12-14: "If an enemy were insulting me, I could endure it; if a foe were raising himself against me, I could hide from him. But it is you, a man like myself, my companion, my close friend, with whom I once enjoyed sweet fellowship as we walked with the throng at the house of God." Now, I do not know about you, but that really does not sound like David is feeling overly 'chipper' at the moment. Since he is feeling hurt, betrayed, and yes, most likely mad, is he sinning? Short answer - no.
While there are numerous examples in the New Testament (lots with the pharisees), how about this one from Matthew 16:4 "A wicked and adulterous generation looks for a miraculous sign, but none will be given it except the sign of Jonah". Again in Luke 11:29 "..Jesus said, this is a wicked generation...". Now then, I do not think Jesus had a big happy grin on His face when He was saying those things. I also do not think He was feeling overly happy at that moment in time either. Matter of fact, He sounds like He might have been at least a bit ticked off. In Mark 11, we read where Jesus cleared out the temple. I strongly suspect He was not feeling blissful when He used the words "you have made it a den of robbers". John 11: 35 "Jesus wept." Pretty much self explanatory there.
Now then, Jesus was without sin, was He not.
Jesus obviously had a full range of feelings and emotions while on earth - happy, sad, hurt, mad, etc.
That said, how can anyone think that 1) Feelings are sinful and 2) that we are supposed to wander around this life happy and glowing all the time? Jesus didn't. How the heck do we think we can?
The example above from Psalm 55 is from David and is regarding Saul, who was pursuing him for no real reason as David had done nothing but good to and for him. Now David was not only a great king, but he was also a warrior. At one point, Saul is alone in a cave that David is in. David sneaks up and cuts off a part of his robe. Now then, all considered, do you think that it may have crossed his mind that he could end it all right now by driving his blade straight through Saul? Do you think that he felt happy as he sneaked up on him, or would it make more sense that he felt all the hurt, betrayal and anger seething through him with each step? Probably. The thing is though, did he act upon those feelings and slay Saul? No, he did not give in to them (reading beforehand, the initial idea was to kill Saul not just cut off a chunk of his robe)
More than once we read about God's anger with the rebellious nature of humanity. More than once we see where Jesus was less than pleased. Did He give in and wipe out the human race? Let's be honest, we deserve it after all. No. Obviously He did not act on those feelings.
There is our goal. To not act upon those feelings.
If you have had a horrid day and someone cuts you off in rush hour traffic, is it sinful for you to be ticked off about it? No. Is it sinful for you to try and ram them for doing it? Yes.
If you feel someone has betrayed you, is feeling hurt and betrayed sinful or unchristian? Nope. Is seeking to hurt them because they hurt you sinful? Yes it is.
Feelings by themselves, are not sinful. Feelings, by themselves, are not unchristian.
Far too many people set themselves up for a big fall because they, for some reason or another, believe that "feeling" is not Christian. They tell themselves that they should not feel hurt when someone betrays them. That they should not feel mad about something that is done to them. That they should not feel ... well, you can fill that in on your own, no doubt.
Feelings are normal. They are not sin. Having them does not make you less of a Christian or, somehow, substandard in the kingdom of God.
Someone does something less than nice to you and you feel hurt and mad about it. Congratulations, you're human!
It is our responses to those feelings that can get us in trouble and cause us to sin.
How does Jesus say we are to respond when someone tries to take something from us that they have no right to take? Let them. What about when we feel used by someone - are we to seek revenge or try and give them what they deserve? No, no we are not. We can feel hurt, mad, sad, betrayed, etc etc etc. What we are not supposed to do is act upon those feelings - to give in to the temptation to seek our own retribution.
If we try and lie to ourselves (and to God) and say we do not feel certain emotions - ever - then really, we are setting ourselves up for a pretty big fall when we get overwhelmed by them at some point. God knows you have feelings. He does too after all and He made us. Do not try and lie to yourself about having them. And definitely do not try and lie to God about them. Be honest with Him, and yourself.
Surely, we could go on and on about feelings and how they relate to truth, sin, and life in general as well as in the Christian walk, but for the moment, this bit will suffice. I would like to add, however, that we are talking about feelings as in emotional responses (mad, sad, happy, hurt, etc) as opposed to "urges" (like lust, for example).
Friday, February 11, 2011
Monday, February 7, 2011
Free Will
I know that some have an issue with something. That is, sovereign will of God vs. free will. Now to explain those terms for anyone who is not overly familiar with them.
The sovereign will of God refers to the fact that God has everything planned out. That everything has been preset as it were. He has plan A, period. There is no plan B. There is no subsection 172-F to handle what you did or did not do last week (and really, isn't it pretty arrogant to think that we, as mere human beings, can change God's plans?). Now there is a great freedom in that knowledge for those who choose to follow Him. Since He already has things preplanned and knows what is going to happen in our lives before we even do, there is no failing Him. Failing Him would mean that He had false expectations of what we could or could not do. Like in school for instance: if you had a physics exam and your teacher expected you to be capable of getting at least 60% and you instead, got 20%. In that instance, you have failed because more was expected of you than you were capable of giving. But in matters of one's walk with God, that false expectation does not exist. He knows when He asks you do something whether or not you will do it or not so you cannot fail. It is we, as people, who see things as failings.
Okay, so God has it all laid out for us. What about free will? That is, the fact that I can choose to go left or right, go or stay, start or stop, etc. If God has everything planned out, with no alternative plan of action required, how does free will factor into that? Almost seems contradictory, but it isn't.
There are two things to take into account:
1)God knows our hearts far better than we do. Things that we do not even realize are there, whether good or bad, He already knows all about all of it. He knows, what we will do in any given situation on any given day far more so than we do. If it were not the case, then whether believer or not, no one would ever have a regret about something they felt they should have done or not done.
2) Time. Time is for us. Frankly, we cannot, with our own limited understanding, understand things without it. For example, try to actually fathom eternal. Think as far in the future as you can, then think further ahead, and again, again. Now at the same time, think back as far as you can, and again, and again, etc. Do not forget to think about right here right now in this moment in time at the same exact time. Eternal is hard to fathom. So we have time. God is eternal. He does not need time, we do. (Although God's plan does appear to be event driven - when this happens then this will occur, etc).
Now something with time. We live time going forward. We cannot go backwards, only forwards. But is that how God has written out history? Did He start out writing it "In the beginning" and just playing it by ear from there? No. God is beyond time remember. We may live history forward, but He has written it in reverse. Writing the end result first then working back to the beginning He wanted.
Now think about that for a moment. If you were to write a novel and there was a place where you knew you wanted it to end at, would it not be easier to write backwards? You could have your characters make and choose decisions that would result in completely unexpected directions but that would all tie in together to reach the pre-written end of the book.
Writing forward would mean you would have to try and desperately meld things together in some sensible way to hopefully reach your goal without losing direction in the mix.
This brings us to free will within the sovereign plan of God Almighty.
Let us say that you go for a walk one day, and happen across the scene of a house fire. And let us also say that there is, within this house, a person trapped within. What do you do?
Most of us would like to say we would throw caution to the wind, run inside, and rescue the person or die trying. But the truth is, many would not run inside, would they.
Now let us say that in God's plan, He needs you to run in and rescue that person. But it is your choice right? But, as mentioned previously, He knows you better than you do. So what does He do?
God knows what circumstances and events would have to take place in your daily life to lead you to a place where you would, in fact, forget all fear and rescue that trapped person. And since He did not write your place in history front to back, but rather, back to front, He can easily put those things in place where you would use your own free will to choose to lead you in the direction needed for you to be in that selfless place He needs you to be in. Keep in mind, He knows what you will do with 100% accuracy in any, and all, situations in your life. While most of us would like to think we know with that same accuracy, in truth, at best we are probably around 50 or 60% for the most part.
So take a few minutes and digest all that. It may take a minute or two but when you get your mind around it, it is pretty easy to see how God uses our free will as part of His sovereign will. We do choose, but He knows what our choices will be every single time, without fail, so it easy for Him to place events in such a way as have us be where, and who, He wants us to be perfectly within His own perfect plan.
There you go, we do have free will but God is (thankfully) completely and totally in control - always.
Jeremiah 10:23 "..I know that people’s lives are not their own; it is not for them to direct their steps."
The sovereign will of God refers to the fact that God has everything planned out. That everything has been preset as it were. He has plan A, period. There is no plan B. There is no subsection 172-F to handle what you did or did not do last week (and really, isn't it pretty arrogant to think that we, as mere human beings, can change God's plans?). Now there is a great freedom in that knowledge for those who choose to follow Him. Since He already has things preplanned and knows what is going to happen in our lives before we even do, there is no failing Him. Failing Him would mean that He had false expectations of what we could or could not do. Like in school for instance: if you had a physics exam and your teacher expected you to be capable of getting at least 60% and you instead, got 20%. In that instance, you have failed because more was expected of you than you were capable of giving. But in matters of one's walk with God, that false expectation does not exist. He knows when He asks you do something whether or not you will do it or not so you cannot fail. It is we, as people, who see things as failings.
Okay, so God has it all laid out for us. What about free will? That is, the fact that I can choose to go left or right, go or stay, start or stop, etc. If God has everything planned out, with no alternative plan of action required, how does free will factor into that? Almost seems contradictory, but it isn't.
There are two things to take into account:
1)God knows our hearts far better than we do. Things that we do not even realize are there, whether good or bad, He already knows all about all of it. He knows, what we will do in any given situation on any given day far more so than we do. If it were not the case, then whether believer or not, no one would ever have a regret about something they felt they should have done or not done.
2) Time. Time is for us. Frankly, we cannot, with our own limited understanding, understand things without it. For example, try to actually fathom eternal. Think as far in the future as you can, then think further ahead, and again, again. Now at the same time, think back as far as you can, and again, and again, etc. Do not forget to think about right here right now in this moment in time at the same exact time. Eternal is hard to fathom. So we have time. God is eternal. He does not need time, we do. (Although God's plan does appear to be event driven - when this happens then this will occur, etc).
Now something with time. We live time going forward. We cannot go backwards, only forwards. But is that how God has written out history? Did He start out writing it "In the beginning" and just playing it by ear from there? No. God is beyond time remember. We may live history forward, but He has written it in reverse. Writing the end result first then working back to the beginning He wanted.
Now think about that for a moment. If you were to write a novel and there was a place where you knew you wanted it to end at, would it not be easier to write backwards? You could have your characters make and choose decisions that would result in completely unexpected directions but that would all tie in together to reach the pre-written end of the book.
Writing forward would mean you would have to try and desperately meld things together in some sensible way to hopefully reach your goal without losing direction in the mix.
This brings us to free will within the sovereign plan of God Almighty.
Let us say that you go for a walk one day, and happen across the scene of a house fire. And let us also say that there is, within this house, a person trapped within. What do you do?
Most of us would like to say we would throw caution to the wind, run inside, and rescue the person or die trying. But the truth is, many would not run inside, would they.
Now let us say that in God's plan, He needs you to run in and rescue that person. But it is your choice right? But, as mentioned previously, He knows you better than you do. So what does He do?
God knows what circumstances and events would have to take place in your daily life to lead you to a place where you would, in fact, forget all fear and rescue that trapped person. And since He did not write your place in history front to back, but rather, back to front, He can easily put those things in place where you would use your own free will to choose to lead you in the direction needed for you to be in that selfless place He needs you to be in. Keep in mind, He knows what you will do with 100% accuracy in any, and all, situations in your life. While most of us would like to think we know with that same accuracy, in truth, at best we are probably around 50 or 60% for the most part.
So take a few minutes and digest all that. It may take a minute or two but when you get your mind around it, it is pretty easy to see how God uses our free will as part of His sovereign will. We do choose, but He knows what our choices will be every single time, without fail, so it easy for Him to place events in such a way as have us be where, and who, He wants us to be perfectly within His own perfect plan.
There you go, we do have free will but God is (thankfully) completely and totally in control - always.
Jeremiah 10:23 "..I know that people’s lives are not their own; it is not for them to direct their steps."
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