Christian Holiness Journal

Many Christians complain that they cannot discover the will of God for their lives. Some of those, I believe, may struggle because they do not seek to live in His will. Rather, they are looking for a magic eight ball: shake it up, turn it over, and read the will of the Lord. Should I take that job? Ask the eight ball. Should I marry this person? Ask the eight ball. Should I go to the mission field..? You get it. Many Christians are seized with fear about such things because they have never submitted to God in more foundational ways. 

What are the first things that God wills for our lives? To walk daily with Jesus. To love Him with all our heart, all our mind, and all our strength. To love one another in the same way as we love ourselves. To obey His commandments. To pray continuously. To take care of the poor, widowed, and orphaned. To give generously. 

If we fail to do God’s will in those foundational things, we cannot expect to know God’s will in the more personal things. 

If you are seized with fear about the direction of your life, then be faithful to that which is foundational. Fear Not, but desire just one thing: “that I might not offend Him.”

—-

Brother Lawrence said the greatest pains or pleasures of this world were not to be compared with what he had experienced of both kinds in a spiritual state. As a result he feared nothing, desiring only one thing of God – that he might not offend Him. He said he carried no guilt. “When I fail in my duty, I readily acknowledge it, saying, I am used to do so. I shall never do otherwise if I am left to myself. If I fail not, then I give God thanks acknowledging that it comes from Him.” 

– from The Practice of the Presence of God. 

Here, right in the middle of this fearful world is a place that is meant for all time, for all people, which has a peculiar task that the world doesn’t under­stand. It keeps calling over and over but always anew, in the same tone, the same thing: Fear is overcome; don’t be afraid (John 16:33). 

“In the world you are frightened. But be comforted; I have conquered the world!” Christ is in the boat! 

And this place, where this kind of talk is heard – and should be heard –  is the pulpit of the church. From this pulpit the living Christ himself wants to speak, so that wherever he reaches somebody, that person will feel the fear sinking away, will feel Christ overcoming his or her fear…

Let the most depressed and despairing people speak, those who ask: “Isn’t our time up?” “Aren’t the years of catastrophe, of utter decline and breakdown, the chaos of our lives in both great and small things, which no one can ignore, the sign that God has let us go?” “God doesn’t want us anymore.” “There’s no more mercy coming our way from God.” “God is against us, and we have to accept it.” “It won’t do to keep clinging if we aren’t wanted.”

 This is the cry out of the very depths of despair. There is only one thing that helps, and it is what the church does with any of us who thinks and feels this way. It takes the cross and places it before our eyes and asks: Did God abandon him? And since God did not abandon Jesus, we will not be abandoned by God, either.

– Dietrich Bonhoeffer,

“Overcoming Fear,” Sermon, Berlin. January 15, 1933.

It’s not easy being married. My wife and I will mark our 38th wedding anniversary this year. My sister and brother-in-law are past their fiftieth, and many folks I go to church with are well past their fiftieth, wedding anniversary as well. In spite of that, marriage is not easy. 

The divorce rate in America has remained around fifty percent for generations. Fewer and fewer people even bother with marriage. 

It is not entirely the fault of those involved… not entirely. Satan hates marriage. 

Marriage was the first institution created by God. Before He created cities, states, nations, and the Church, God created marriage, and subsequently, the family. It is the only one of those institutions that He created personally (see Genesis 2:24); all others He created by extension through man. It is, also, the institution attacked first and foremost by Satan, for he knows that if he can destroy the marriage and the family that all of society will be destroyed as well. 

How can we defend marriage and family? Build both on a foundation of prayer and obedience to God. Had I done this years ago, I would have saved much grief. You see marriage actually involves three people, not two: man, woman, and God. When the husband and wife have a deep relationship with God and continue to develop that relationship jointly, they perfect their love. Then they need not fear a failed marriage. 

Sure, they will still have problems. Temptations and trials will still trouble their marriage, but because of the persistent guidance of God, they will overcome them. The same thing is true of the children. 

Love perfected by God creates perfect marriages… well, as perfect as they will ever be in a fallen world. 

Fear Not, for “there is no fear in love; but perfect love casts out fear.” 1 John 4:18a