Perhaps it may turn out a sang,
Perhaps turn out a sermon.

-- R. Burns Epistle to a Young Friend

Tuesday, November 12, 2013

I've Read Your Book



Put no trust in a neighbor; have no confidence in a friend; guard the doors of your mouth from her who lies in your arms; for the son treats the father with contempt, the daughter rises up against her mother, the daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law; a man's enemies are the men of his own house. – Micah 7:5-6


Most of us are more familiar with this passage from Matthew chapter 10 as quoted in part by Jesus after He said that He had “not come to bring peace, but a sword” (v. 34).  Those early Christians were often seen as troublemakers and people who upset the right order of things, as described in the book of Acts.  For example, Acts 17:6 says, “These men who have turned the world upside down have come here also …” -- that is what the truth does.  It puts the world on its head, uprooting and thus restoring the divine order.

It isn’t just the outside world that finds this disturbing.  In dreams the house usually represents the dreamer’s life.  When the Lord is at work in our hearts, we may find ourselves in disarray, at odds with those close to us while at the same time dealing with internal conflicts.  The house is divided against itself, and a choice has to be made.  Are we going to sink back into our normal state of complacency and try to restore peace with all the elements of our old life by either partially or completely rejecting God?  To do so is to die.  As the man said, only the dead have seen the end of war.  It seems a hard way to obtain a false peace.

The alternative is to embrace God’s truth, to allow our world to be stood on its head.  The battle will move out a circle, and we will find our internal turmoil soothed and quiet.  We may be still in the midst of storm and war, but our hearts will be as still as a deep and sheltered pool.

There is one other thing that I have believed for a long time and stated on occasion, though I was never able to give a good reason or a Scripture reference as to why I believed it.  It may be that I picked it up from verse 5 above.  Sometimes we have to be careful of whom we ask prayer.  Not all people have my best interests at heart, but beyond that, not even all of those who love me (few enough in my case as it is) are willing to accept what God wants to do for me.  Many of us are confounded by this.  Pride, envy, and jealousy are powerful.  I’ve known fathers who were troubled by their sons’ successes for fear that it might overshadow their own achievements, forgetting, perhaps, that the sons’ accomplishments redound to the glory of the fathers.  How much more likely that the prayers of other family members or of some friend might be chilled by an envious frost?    

Are there not mothers who fear that God’s will done in a child’s life might loosen her own influence?  Some of those close to us may draw a slightly perverse pleasure from our dependence on them.  I have to watch that tendency in myself with regard to family and friends.  It’s a dangerous thing to play god, though it can be thrilling.  We should beware of polluting our good intentions toward others and likewise of their best intentions toward us being less than perfectly pure.  

We don't even have to mean to do harm.  Suppose a friend of modest means comes to me and asks that I pray with him for a car to replace his broken-down, unreliable vehicle.  I should pray that God will bless him with the perfect car for him -- not the one he wants or the one he'll settle for or the one I think would be good enough for him.  For all I know, the Lord may have a Lexus convertible for him while I'm envisioning a solid, low-mileage Toyota pickup.  Would I feel bad if he got a better rig than I have? 

Sadly, to know my enemies, I may not need to do as Patton did with Rommel and read his book.  I may need look only to my own heart, my own impulses and inclinations.  

There is One we may always fully trust and to whom we may make known our deepest desires without fear.  But as for me, I will look to the Lord; I will wait for the God of my salvation; my God will hear me. (Micah 7:7)

No comments: