A Humble Walk with God
Make it your ambition to lead a quiet life: You should mind your own business and work with your hands, just as we told you.
1 Thessalonians 4:11
The process of walking by faith can be illustrated by the game of golf. Suppose a five-year-old child hits the ball 75 yards but is 15 degrees off the center of the fairway. Because of the short distance, the ball will probably land in the fairway. When the child is 12 years old, he hits the ball 200 yards but again is 15 degrees off. Now the ball is probably in the rough. When the child becomes an adult and hits the ball 300 yards, a 15-degree error could land the ball out of bounds.
If what we believe is 15 degrees off from the Word of God, there may not be many negative consequences when we are young. However, there will be if we continue on that course through midlife. We end up playing out of the rough or being penalized for being out of bounds. The midlife crisis is a plan led astray. There are near and far consequences for everything we have chosen to believe. As our culture drifts further away from its Judeo-Christian roots, the consequences of what our young people believe are showing up before they reach adulthood.
We don’t have to wait until life falls apart to find out whether or not our walk is true. Our emotional response to what we think and believe reveals whether we are on the right path. Remember that our emotions are predominantly a product of our thought life. Consciously or subconsciously, we have certain ideas or goals in our minds for how we should live and what must happen in order for us to be happy, satisfied and successful. Often, our sense of worth is tied to those goals.
If you found out your supervisor was blocking your goal of being promoted, you would probably feel angry. If the promotion were uncertain, you would probably feel anxious every time you thought about it. If you thought your goal for a promotion was impossible, you would likely feel depressed.
We will be on an emotional roller coaster if we believe our identity and sense of worth are dependent on other people and life’s circumstances. If a pastor believes his sense of worth is dependent on the response of his congregation, he may try to manipulate them into responding the way he wants, but every member of the congregation can block that goal. Likewise, if a mother believes her sense of self-worth depends on having a harmonious Christian family, every family member can block that goal, but nobody can keep that mother from being the person God created her to be.
Paul said the goal of our instruction is love (see 1 Timothy 1:5) and “the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience . . . self-control” (Galatians 5:22-23, NASB). Notice the fruit of the Spirit is self-control, not congregational control or child control. Also notice the fruit of the Spirit is singular (“fruit,” not “fruits”). God’s love manifests itself in joy, peace and patience. If our goal in life is to become the person God created us to be, then the fruit of the Spirit becomes evident in our lives. Regardless of circumstances, we experience joy instead of depression, peace instead of anxiety, and patience instead of anger. Nobody and nothing can keep us from being sanctified but ourselves.
questions to consider:
Why should we consider the long-term consequences of what we choose to believe?
What do anger, anxiety and depression reveal?
What is fundamentally wrong with people who try to control others or manipulate circumstances in order to meet their goals?
What is keeping you from being the person God created you to be? Is that your goal?
What plans do you have right now that others can block? How can you change that?
Neil T. Anderson is the founder of Freedom in Christ Ministries. He began the ministry in 1989 and continues to spread the message of freedom to this day.