Full Quiver Ministries

“With gratitude, optimism is sustainable.” – Michael J. Fox

I felt like I was supposed to share one of my favorite things that I’m learning right now. I don’t have any chicken analogies this time or quick witted stories. There’s just a raw and probably shallow understanding of an uncomfortable truth. It’s something I want to say until I believe it. It rests on two scriptures that I’ve been meditating on and that no matter how you examine them, whether in context or out of it, give some real challenges to living the Christian life through self-will. I also want to say now that I want the Christian life to include challenges. I think it’s the best way to grow, if you’re interested in that sort of thing. I try to practice this with my kids. I don’t want to solve all of my children’s struggles. I want to offer counsel. I want to console them, but I want them to struggle and learn. That doesn’t mean I won’t swoop in and settle disputes, sometimes way too soon and often, but it means my heart for them is to learn and grow. The two verses I’ve been wrestling with are 1 Corinthians 13:5 and 1 Thessalonians 5:18.

Recently I’ve been challenged on the way that I apply verses to my life. What’s becoming challenging for me in these situations is that I feel that the Holy Spirit has convicted me to examine scripture through the example of Christ and not my own lenses. 

I believe that Jesus is perfect theology. If I need a theological example, then I need look no further than the life of Christ to find my example. And I want to go ahead and say that if your answer is that’s unreasonable or impossible, your hope and strength may rest in the wrong place. You may be leaning on your own understanding instead of resting in His strength. That’s where I’ve been. I’m not telling you that I’ve figured out how to do it. I’m telling you that I figured out I can’t and that I desperately need Him. Now that I think of it, Scripture has been telling us this for a long time and it’s blatantly obvious.

Trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding; in all your ways submit to Him, and He will make your paths straight.

Proverbs 3:5-6 (NIV)

I’ve held a subconscious belief for a long time that the truth of scripture had to be interpreted through the lens of what I consider to be rational thoughts, beliefs, and actions. In other words, what is Holy could only be understood and realized when filtered through my own abilities that are governed by my limitations and beliefs. The truth in God’s word became an unattainable pipe dream and I was relegated to live like scripture and its commands are beautiful tales of unattainable fiction that I should profess as fact. 

Over the past few years, I’ve realized that the commands of God are not intended to be interpreted through my rational thinking. They are intended to be followed. He’s not waiting on my ability to reach a certain potential that enables me to follow Him. He wants to empower me through the Holy Spirit that fills me. I like the way that it’s put in the book of Judges:

Then the Spirit of YAHWEH clothed himself in Gideon and enveloped him!

Judges 6:34a (TPT)

There’s this idea here that it’s the Holy Spirit working through Gideon, attributed to Gideon, without the will of Gideon getting in the way. There’s a picture in this passage of complete surrender and yieldedness. Gideon is involved, but he’s not being guided by his own will and it isn’t being accomplished in his own strength. In my own life, I find myself trying to engage my own will to make things happen. It can even have a holy connotation, but self will is interested in self. I think this is one way that the danger of self-will flies under the radar. 

Self-will is destructive, for sure, in every area of my life, but self-will always depends on self-ability to see its plans fulfilled. In the area that I’m referencing, specifically following the commands of Christ, the self-will might view following these commands as a means to its end, but is unable to see them through. To me that means that even if my self-willed goal is to obey God’s commands, I’m dependent on my self-ability to make it happen and that tends to create a performance based relationship. Jesus came and taught in the Sermon on the mount that pleasing God is impossible without the Spirit of God inside of me, living in me, ruling my life, and empowering me in the pursuit of Him (Matt. 5-7). He redefined people’s understanding of holiness, making the heart posture the primary focus, and showed that without surrender to the will and spirit of God, no one can be made holy. With this in mind, let’s take a look at these 2 verses:

It (Love) does not dishonor others, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs.

1 Corinthians 13:5 (NIV)

Give thanks in all circumstances; for this is God’s will for you in Christ Jesus.

1 Thessalonians 5:18 (NIV)

I’ve come to a few conclusions after wrestling with these verses over the last few months. The First is that if I have kept a record of wrongs in any conflict, I’m not loving the person I am in conflict with. I think that can be said in every relationship. Puts me in the hot seat when I’m arguing with my wife and I want to bring up old issues! To indulge that means that I’m not loving my wife. I’m pulling up the record of her wrongs and using them against her. I don’t think that means we shy away from conflict or keep from having difficult conversations with people to keep from “building a record”. I think this means that when the conflict is resolved, it’s done. It should be put out like it no longer matters. I’m not going to bring it up again because it’s settled. I think this also gives an incentive to stay in the conflict until it is settled. That being said, make sure you’re being honest with your wife and yourself, not just trying to be right. We keep the good things that have come out of the conflict and we continue on stronger than we were. This also means that your way of having conflict needs to change too. This is an area where I can use a significant amount of growth, and a lesson I want to learn quickly so that I don’t need lots of practice! Why you have conflict and how you have conflict need to shift in order to keep no record of wrongs. I wouldn’t be the authority on that. I would point you to people like Danny Silk and his book “Keep Your Love On” in order to learn how to have a conflict well. I would also point you to the book “Boundaries” by Henry Cloud to help learn how to build healthy relationships.

Second, I should be thankful for the circumstance that I’m in, no matter what that circumstance is. Not that the circumstance is God’s will, but your thankfulness is. Bill Johnson said something to the effect that we are not glorifying the evil of the situation, but God’s ability to use it. And I did the due diligence to look up the word “all” in the original greek. It means all. That means that no matter what I’m going through, I should be giving thanks. I believe this has to do directly with the circumstances that you’re facing, the thing that you hate being in the middle of right now.

This is not the rational response and exactly where I believe being put on like a garment by the Holy Spirit will need to come into play. I’ve tried to apply this understanding in my own life by breaking the process of thankfulness down. Even though I’m creating a process, I still want you to hear that I believe that any of this is impossible without being empowered by the Spirit, having the Holy Spirit clothe Himself with me. Here’s a breakdown of the way I’ve tried to apply this understanding in my life: Be thankful for the outcome, be thankful for the situation, and be thankful for who brought me here.

• Be thankful for the outcome: It’s easy to be thankful for what you’re becoming. We sing it a lot of times in the church through songs like “Refiner” or “New Wine”. I have an idea of what I’m becoming. Thank you God for what you’re doing in my life! This attitude will set me up for the next principle.
• Be thankful for the situation: I feel that if I can become thankful for the perceived outcome of any situation, it can help me to be thankful for the situation I’m currently facing because without the situation, I wouldn’t have the outcome. If I can be thankful for the situation because of what it is producing in me or what it has the potential to produce in the people who brought me here (outcome), then that helps me to frame the situation in terms that emphasize growth and healing. There has to be something in this situation for me to learn and grow from. The change in mindset helps me to be thankful for the situation. I’ve become aware that even though the situation may not have been originally intended for my benefit, it will be used for my benefit.
• Be thankful for who brought me here: I am choosing to honor the part of God in them, the breath that created them from dust, if I can honor nothing else. I’m choosing to believe that even though their actions caused pain, that the pain is making growth possible in the both of us. I’m also keenly aware that my response to this situation may be the only time I can truly show the love of Jesus to them. It’s only in the times where we are in “danger” the most where we can give a sacrifice like this to honor God! I can be thankful for the opportunity to show honor and love in a way that may break through barriers they have built up.

I’ve been blessed by God to see a few different situations like this in my life lately. It’s a conscious choice to word that statement in that way. I want that to be my heart posture towards the difficult things I experience. I do want to be a little vulnerable here and say that I haven’t had the best attitude about these situations. It’s taken me some time to see the hand of God in these and yield myself to what the Spirit is trying to teach me and show me. It’s taken me some time to remove my lenses! What I do in these instances is to understand that my growth is tied to the changing from frustration and anger to thankfulness and expectancy. The quicker I’m able to make the shift, to truly make that shift, the more I’m growing. 

I feel like this is the command of God for us as His children, but I also understand the push back. I don’t agree with it, but I understand it. I’ve had conversations with a few of my friends that have lived particularly difficult childhoods and the thought of being thankful in those situations is particularly offensive to them. I’m not talking about the, “I didn’t get the car I wanted” mindset, I’m talking about trauma and abuse of an emotional, physical, and sexual nature. I absolutely understand that and can sympathize with the feelings that are associated, but I am unwilling to bend what I believe to be the truth of scripture. I find that when I say things like, “Jesus won’t give me anything I can’t handle,” I’m more often saying this phrase with the limitations of my own self-will and ability in mind. I’m not meant to handle it, I’m meant to surrender it. I feel the same way about the statement, “Jesus is a gentleman and wouldn’t force this on me.” I believe that statement is correct in that Jesus doesn’t force anything on me. I think that would be a violation of my free-will. I think His timing and mine are very different though. It’s been my experience that He will bring something that needs to be addressed to my attention and if I’m resisting Him, we don’t deal with it. At that point, the stuff can linger, unaddressed, and wreak havoc in my life. It’s when I’m willing to submit to his timing and surrender to His touch that I find freedom. I can phrase my objections, making it sound like Jesus would be invading my life and comfort to address issues, but the truth is that if I’m submitted to His rule and reign (He is Lord of my life) and my body is His temple, I really don’t belong to myself. He can do what He wants to with what belongs to Him. 

I feel like this is a hard truth and I can understand this sounding far-fetched. I get that this might be hard to wrap your mind around. It should be! I want to point out again that none of this is supposed to be accomplished in my rational thinking or natural ability, but by the power of the Holy Spirit which is not governed by any natural laws. Jesus is the lens that the tenets of scripture must be interpreted through. It’s the standard for the Christian life.  Anything less than that is selling a life in Him, and through Him, and with Him short!