Trusting Christ in the day-to-day

Christians are supposed to walk by faith, not sight (2 Corinthians 5:7). Basically, this means we are supposed to live our everyday lives, in every area, according to faith in God and His Word, and all that implies -- not by our fallen human perceptions, priorities, and values. Romans 10:17 makes it clear that Bible study and other "hearing" of God's Word, informed by prayer and illumination by the Spirit (cf. 12:1-2), is the key to this faith.

We know that.

And yet it is one of the hardest things to do, even if it is the most basic.

I am still on my pilgrimage, so it's not like I have all the answers (though I wish I did). And while I am still thinking through how to practically walk by faith, the one thing I do know is this:

It's worth it.

Since I graduated college last May, my priority has been finding some kind of employment. Of course, so was everyone else who graduated when I did.

I learned very quickly that whatever wonderful experiences I had while at school and however much the Lord had grown me and given me ministry experience...employers were not exactly interested in that. Most jobs within a reasonable driving distance required all sorts of hands-on experience a college graduate would not have -- and that was just to apply for the job, never mind get a simple interview.

Doors kept slamming. My heart got more and more worn. And, of course, my student loan debt wasn’t going to take care of itself.

I spent many nights asking the Lord exactly what I was doing wrong. Was I lazy? Too picky? Prideful over some of the work I could be doing? I was getting tired and ashamed of telling people at church that, no, I still did not have a job and to please pray I would find something soon.

Then, an acquaintance from out-of-state told me about a job opportunity she knew of. It was something I'd heard about in principle (the kind of work, not the actual job itself) but never thought I could do. After all, I was a college graduate with no experience in the real employment world. Oh, sure, I’d worked during college...but I’d worked for my college. With nice Christian people. I could walk to work from student housing, for heaven’s sake. I knew nothing about actual employment in the "real" world.

But I was desperate enough, and daring enough, and maybe a little crazy enough, to try it.

And, as Tony Evans likes to say, this was the point the Lord created an intersection between my need and an opportunity.

Will I be working this job the rest of my life? I don't know. My dream is to eventually go to seminary and receive the training I need to enter full-time Christian work. I do know that I can take the skills I learn here and hone them, adapt them, to whatever the Lord is calling me to do. Plus, in the meantime I know I have a valuable skill set which I can market for a steady profit over time.

But my point in all this is to say that the Lord provided for me, and He did so at precisely the right time. I did not have a job for the year and three months after graduation ultimately because He did not want me to have a job. I was instead to spend that time studying, reading, and contemplating great truths in secret. I was to come away and be with Him, and wrestle, and fail, and learn, and grow.

And the whole time He had this job up His proverbial sleeve.

And He knew it.

And I didn't...

And I often failed to trust Him for it.

But I have learned through this year-long walk that the Lord indeed is in control, and He does look out for me, and most of all His wisdom, timing, and ways are higher and better than mine could ever be. I often gave into the temptation of unbelief over the last year -- because the Lord was not doing things when I thought He should, then it must follow that He wasn’t doing them at all, or that what I wanted was wrong. Cue morbid introspection.

We like to say, “If I knew then what I know now…” and then fill in the blank with a litany of mistakes we wouldn’t have made.

But the truth is that we don’t need to know then what we know now. The only thing we need to know is that God is in control and He provides for His children.

I knew that then. But I know it better -- by experience -- now.

It turned out the one thing I always knew is the only thing I needed to know.

Makes things a lot simpler, doesn’t it?

Something More Important than Comfort

I have been involved with enough churches and Christian organizations – and known enough professing Christians – to have learned a few things.

One of the more incessantly interesting is the prevalence amongst said professing Christians to meet Divine commands with an arsenal of “buts” which are usually followed by what I call an autonomous bait and switch.

Take one of my favorites: “But I’m not comfortable with that.”

This has nearly endless applications and permutations. Often, whiny discussions of “boundaries” and whether one “feels” like doing something are not far behind.

I offer a representative, non-exhaustive list. To wit:

• Invite a new member family, otherwise unknown to you, over after the evening service for dinner, and so obey the commands to show hospitality without grumbling (1 Peter 4:9; Romans 12:13)? Or, befriend -- and remain friends with -- a fellow believer in obedience to the same, even when they rub you the wrong way, cross your will, and act like a jerk? “I’m not comfortable with that."
• Show physical affection to a fellow Christian, especially if you’re a man (Acts 20:37; 1 Corinthians 16:12)? “I’m not comfortable with that."
• Have an emotionally intimate, affectionate relationship with a fellow believer, especially if you're a man (2 Corinthians 6:11-13; 1 Thessalonians 2:7-8; Philippians 1:7-9; 2 Timothy 1:4, 4:9, 21)? "I'm not comfortable with that."
• Force yourself to engage with fellow Christians and your local Body, let people into your life, be vulnerable, confess sin, accept rebuke, be humble, sacrifice, serve (Hebrews 3:13, 10:26; Romans 15:7; James 5:16; 1 Peter 5:5; John 15:13; Galatians 5:13)? “I’m not comfortable with that.”
• Rebuke a fellow professed Christian for ongoing sin, which includes theological error (Luke 17:3)? “I’m not comfortable with that.”
• Graciously and intimately welcome a fellow Christian who struggles with sins different than yours (Romans 15:7)? “I’m not comfortable with that.”
• Oppose worldliness and embrace the Lordship of Jesus in your choices of dress, personal deportment, entertainment and music, political affiliation, consumption of alcohol, allegedly unimportant “secondary” matters of doctrine like the charismatic gifts and eschatology, and basically any other area about which some permissive believer – or the world – would pitch a hissy fit (Romans 12:1-2; 1 Corinthians 12:3; 1 John 2:15-17)? “I’m not comfortable with that.”
• Love other Christians devotedly, persistently and sacrificially no matter how flawed they are nor how messy, or how costly it is (Romans 12:9-10; Philippians 2:1-3; John 13:34; 1 Peter 4:9)? “I’m not comfortable with that.

And on it goes.

The problem with each of these examples is that they all make a fundamental, presuppositional error in judgment: They all assume that what the individual feels or desires is paramount, such that it even trumps direct statements from Scripture.

I doubt that such expostulations are consciously thought of as such. There are two reasons for this. The first is that there is a legitimate usage of wisdom and discretion. We are commanded in no uncertain terms to be wise and shrewd in our dealings in this life (Matthew 10:16). Obviously, not everything that can be done should be done. I am certainly not saying that a sense of foreboding is automatically or inherently wrong. Nor am I saying it is unimportant. Given the realities of a fallen world, as well as our own awareness (incomplete and biased though it be) of our own inadequacies, such hesitancy can at the least be understandable.

However, wisdom and discernment are gifts from the Lord (Proverbs 1:2-5, 2:3, 6; 1 Corinthians 12:10). If they are from Him, then natural they cannot conflict with what He has said in His Word. Indeed, “wisdom” in Scripture is the ability to live life skillfully in the fear of God – the skill to know how to navigate life as one relates all of it to the lordship of Christ expressed in His Word. It is skill in living out the reality of God being God and me being under His sovereign authority. As such, wisdom is a key component of – if not shorthand for – obedience to the revealed will of God. “Discernment” is to basically look at a thing and have insight into its nature and purpose, insight into how things are and how God says they are to be, to look at two things and to see what God sees (if I may allude to John Kitchen’s excellent definition from his commentary on Proverbs!). And so we must not say we are simply trying to be wise when in reality we are really disobeying Him.

The second reason is a bit more sinister, but it is the more basic and foundational.

We simply think we are the final authority.

It is the nature of fallen humanity to find comfort and delight in anything and everything devoid of God’s authority and under the reign of Self. This dogged tendency is slain and loses dominion but is not eliminated in the truly converted. After decades of a model Christian life, Paul could say in his flesh dwelt no good thing (Romans 7:23), and what was true for the revered apostle until death will be true of us as well.

I apply thusly: That God said a thing, whether directly or by inference, is not what matters to us. What matters to us – what is our deciding factor of whether we will obey or not, and thus in the end what is actually our authority and our God – is what we feel, desire, and think. And since we do not feel like obeying…since that would be messy and costly and revolutionary and tiring and hard, and would require more than a few minutes – in fact, would require no less than everything we have and are – since what we really do not feel comfortable with is exchanging our will and priorities and worldview for God’s…since we apparently think that professing to be Christians (which is to say, professing to be slaves under the authority of the God-Man Christ Jesus) should only have the impact on the details of our daily lives that we want it to have, and no more…we react to Divine injunctions with a “but” and a litany of excuses.

Which is to say we expect God and His imperial authority to bow before our precious felt needs, whims, and fancies.

Had I both the patience and experience to be a fulltime Biblical counselor, I would often wish to ask such people, “Jesus commands you point-blank to crucify yourself daily and follow Him [Luke 9:23]. He clearly has no compunctions about directly asking you to do something that is about as far from ‘easy,’ and ‘comfortable’ as can be. And you ask about boundaries? Jesus is asking you to slay your will, your preferences, your worldview, your perceptions, your wishes, your hopes, your dreams, your everything and exchange it all for His. I do not think He means to leave out your ‘boundaries.’

“So, seeing as He tells you to die to self…which isn’t comfortable in the least…and since He directly tells you something the very content of which is meant to comprehensively assault your comfort and ease…do you really think the rest of His commands and their grace-empowered, real-life, moment-by-moment obedience are going to be anything less? Do you really believe your unbroken will, multitudinous lusts and panicky rationalizations trump the authoritative Word of the sovereign God?"

Given what I know of the dark and unyielding corners of my own heart, I already know the answer.

And what is true for me is true for all of us, apart from daily, humble, intelligent surrender to the merciful and mighty presence of the Messiah.