Living Deliberately
Of all the things I get “bent out of shape” about, it could be summed up in the idea that too many Christians are merely coasting in life…they are not living DELIBERATELY.
I am a deliberate person. I struggle with terms such as “mediocre, balance, middle, gray,” etc. I like to do things “on purpose”. I know this can be to my fault. I drive some people crazy.
But I think I might be on to something…
C.S. Lewis wrote: “Life doesn’t have optional voids…” That is, anything that isn’t filled deliberately (your mind, your time, your energy) will be filled with something you didn’t intend. (The same concept as, “there’s no such thing as parents who fail to train their children; they just train poorly.”
If we aren’t living deliberately, we are coasting. Coasting is ALWAYS downhill. [Sandra Boswell]
We can see it in our dress, our speech, our behavior–the church has coasted a long way downhill.
I think it is this thinking that raises a red flag when I hear Christians talk about “being led by the Spirit” or “freedom in Christ”.
Don’t get upset yet…I firmly believe in being led by the Spirit and exercising our freedom in Christ. FIRMLY!
But I think these phrases have been abused, and used to disguise our sinfulness.
Modern Christians bristle up at the very mention of the word “rules” or standards. Why? Why are we so afraid of it? The Bible is full of teaching to adhere to deliberate standards of behavior…
“…giving all diligence, add to your faith virtue, to virtue knowledge, to knowledge self-control, to self-control perseverance, to perseverance godliness, to godliness brotherly kindness, and to brotherly kindness love.” 2 Pet. 1:2-8
This admonition is the opposite of coasting–this is striving. Not striving for salvation, but striving to live a life “worthy of your calling”.
Our flesh wants to know how close we can get from obedience and still be “safe”…our spirit should seek to know how close we can get to obedience. I’m not talking about legalism here…not a dress code, or a man-made set of standards that puts us above anyone else.
I’m talking about being deliberate, active, on purpose Christians. Christians who use the Word of God as their starting point for determining how they live, instead of using their circumstances to dictate what they think God’s will is.
I’ve given this example before, when we were discussing how much hardship on a woman determines when it is “wise” to prevent children. (This is just one of MANY examples.)
Suppose the apostle Paul used his circumstances to gauge God’s will for his life. If Paul had trusted in “the wisdom God gives us” to determine his life’s course, would he have lived differently? God called him to preach the gospel, but Paul spent most of his ministry in horrible circumstances of imprisonment, torture and misery. Did Paul miss his calling?
Imagine Paul’s response to me if said, “I know God loves children and has commanded me to be fruitful and multiply, and I know He opens and closes the womb, and I know He is sovereign…BUT, I’m sick, and this is hard.
It’s not that a couple (assuming this couple follows the fruitful mandate) may never, in RARE circumstances, hear from God and be given the freedom to space their children for a time…it’s when a couple is looking for a loop-hole, even though they’ve been convicted about God’s plan for husbands and wives to bear godly children. What I’m saying is, “hardship”, by itself, is a very poor gauge of whether someone is in God’s will or not. And often we act like suffering is a viable excuse to reject something God has made clear for us to do.
Man’s wisdom is dangerous…it’s uncertain–it doesn’t have all the information. Man’s wisdom can only be trusted if the heart is to obey and glorify God, and is not operating out of selfishness.
Didn’t mean to go the birth control tangent, but I’m trying to make a point. (I’ll go ahead and predict an outpouring of wrath about the unfair assumptions I’ve made…please don’t miss the point.)
We have begun to rely too heavily on “what I’m feeling” rather than on the truths of God’s unchangeable Word. There are not enough Christians willing to set their faces like flint and walk with faith, DELIBERATELY, toward the Red Sea.
Related posts:
christian living | Word Warrior | 
March 6, 2008 3:32 pm
Kelly, thank you so much for this post. Though you were referencing womb-issues, I see so much more in it, as you also said. For me, this goes to your article on principles. Actually, I wrote a brief blog of my own after thinking about your blog about principles. Which for me, relates to other people’s thoughts on me staying to guard my home/family even when “houseless.”
I believe its the easiest thing to say, “That’s too hard, why would God want His children to do that?” We have the world we do today of cowardly, sad individuals who don’t dare to live His Word out loud, in fear of not being “culturally relevant” (a pain in and of itself, of course) or dealing with the harsh glare of the world that says that want your family together, but do everything they can to tear it apart.
It’s certainly harder and more defining of the character in an individual if they stand up and say, “This is His Word, I don’t care if the culture around me does not find it relevant, I will still obey, even if it brings me pain and hardship.” I am not saying this just of myself in guarding my family, but in men and women everywhere who have, continue to, and will be standing up for God’s clearly, always-active Word.
Thank you so much for doing so and being an encouragement for others to do so as well.
Many blessings to you, Kelly, and your beautiful family.
“I think it is this thinking that raises a red flag when I hear Christians talk about “being led by the Spirit” or “freedom in Christ”.”
You’re right, these scriptures have been abused and used to excuse sin. Like you, I get a little squirmy when I see fellow believers expousing a view that is clearly unbiblical under he guise of being “led by the spirit”.
Of course we are to be led by the Holy Spirit and are free in Christ, be we are first and foremost freed from sin, not from obedience to sound and clear Biblical doctrine. I am certainly no proponent of legalistic dogma, which can also be a problem, but I think the bigger problem in the church today is the former issue, not the latter. Its easy to think that many Christians are overly legalistic if you read lots of christian blogs, but in real life, I simply don’t find that to be the case at all. How did we, as a church, get here?
Love it!