I have been asked to do something that I don’t really agree with. I am stuck between a rock and a hard place. This isn’t the only time that I have had this situation arise. I don’t feel that I should get into the details of this in a public forum, but it is something that is one of those decisions that you have to think, is it going to affect my ministry? It is something that will bless my ministry but I just don’t know how yet? So what do you do? What should I do when presented with a situation that is making me question my morals and ethics?
Maybe this is actually a God situation – making me be sure I know where I stand on issues and where I stand with Him. Maybe it is God asking me- do you trust me enough to step out in faith? Now, with that said, the Lord does ask us to do some crazy things. He asked Abraham to uproot his entire family and move to Ur. He asked a teenager, who was a virgin, to carry Jesus and become His mom.
Jesus had some pretty crazy directions too- he told a man to go and wash in very dirty water to get rid of leprosy. He spit into mud and rubbed it on to a man’s eyes to heal his sight. The thing that I am being asked to do – could actually be beneficial to any ministry that I choose to do in the future. God has a way of working things out in His favor, and I think that is what may be happening here.
In Ester – Haman decides that he is going to destroy the Jews and kill Mordecai on the gallows that he erects. He is in close with the King and the King is doing Haman’s bidding. But God put Ester in a situation that was very unique, he made her, a Jew, to be King Xerxes’ queen. That allowed Ester to expose the plot of Haman and to have Haman hung on the gallows instead. So Ester blessed the Lord by following something that she was unsure of. I am sure that there were days and weeks and possibly months during the 12 months of beauty treatments, that Ester looked at herself in the mirror and said, “what am I doing?”, “Why am I doing this?”.
So what I did was to start praying. PRAYING- as did my husband, and we really petitioned God to see what I am supposed to be doing. Ecclesiastes 7:16-18 says ‘Do not be over righteous, neither be over wise – why destroy yourself? …… The man who fears God will avoid all extremes.” Now the verse is not telling us not to be righteous, but instead telling me not to be legalistic and not to be like the Pharisees who stood on the street corner pronouncing how good they were and how awesome they were because they followed the Law to the letter. Who cares if they were following the Law if they weren’t following the Lord? I am going to say this again – this verse is not telling me that I do not need to be righteous and follow the law, it is telling me that I do not need to hang this righteousness over everyone’s head.
God works in mysterious ways. In today’s society, it is so easy to say, I don’t want to be a Pharisee and I am going to accept this and that. Well, the Bible is very specific what we can and cannot accept in terms of righteousness. So where is that fine line? Where is that line that I can go to so that people don’t look at me like a Bible banging loon that turns people off, but instead as a woman of God with a relationship for Christ? I need to strive to be righteous (see blog on Righteousness) while at the same time, striving to not be over righteous.
Could that be any muddier? I need to follow God and not the world but God wants to save the world. So, here is what I feel called to do, I am going to go ahead with this “situation” that I don’t feel 100% comfortable with because I have felt led that God can really use this “situation” to his advantage. I also am going to be sure to be real, not just “real-igious” but I am going to pursue my REAL-ationship with God and with Jesus and seek Their will in my life.
Ephesians 6:18 “And pray in the Spirit on all occasions with all kinds of prayer and requests, With this in mind, be alert and always keep on praying for all the saints.”
As usual - I know there are so many more verses to go along with this - please feel free to comment and add verses here for me! Thanks
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