Sunday, May 17, 2015

Man's control or God's leading?

          Christians feel the need to look out for each other and, of course, rightly so.  There are times of struggle when other Christians supply temporary physical needs, like food or otherwise. 

          That often overlaps into other areas where a situation needs to be left for God to control, and He does.  For instance,  the time in someone's life when God brings someone along side.  This person may or may not be the lifelong partner God has for them, but only God knows that and will point that out, in His time. 

           Christians give the impression that they need to be in control, in almost every area of life and, even though this may not be there intent, it can clearly be represented by the way we talk, especially when stating things like " I'm going to drill this person to make sure they're the right one for him/her." or blatant untrust in Christ as seen in statements like "I don't like this and they need to break up."   Christians may feel like they are just giving advice or having a friendly discussion,  however all too often Christians who think they are better than other Christians, most often and perhaps because they may have more experience in a certain situation, very easily can give the impression of wanting to control that part of someone else's life.  God will work it out and point out the necessary issues of contention in a situation, but GOD will do that, and in His time.  Very often when 2 Christians court, neither of them really make it known at first, most likely because they know everyone else will try to tell them how the Holy Spirit will lead them along, and it comes across as they'll know the Lord's leading "only when they do what me and my husband/wife did", instead of trusting and letting God work in the situation.

         Another situation where control is easily perceived is in ministry.   There is definitely a lot of work that needs to be done in ministry, but it is GOD that controls the growth and also the amount of activity.  So, how do you know how much activity there should be?   Of course, by the leading of the Holy Spirit, but in addition to that, people have limitations and their own personal convictions regarding ministry.  On one hand, some Christians want to always be serving the Lord, in as many different ways as possible and on the other hand, some Christians only serve in a few different ways, and focus on being faithful in that few. At this point,  it's a matter of interpretation of being faithful in 1 Corinthians 4:2.  The control becomes apparent when the one of these Christian seeks to regulate the other Christian's service.

         More specifically, in Ephesians 4:11-12 describes some of the different ministry roles that God calls believers to.  Pastors, teachers, laborers, and edification.  Not every believer is a teacher, or pastor, or can edify, or is a laborer.  Should believers simply assume that they, or another believer, possess all of these? The word "some" in the Greek, means just that.  God gave some to be teachers, preachers, laborers,  etc.

          I know a dear brother in Christ that was very much the edification role.  He was easy to talk to and gave Godly advice and would also put an arm around you quite often.  However, he was not really of the laborer role.  God had revealed to him that he could and is a great person for the edification of the saints. 

          Of course there are many other areas of ministry and service that believers are called to, but not all believers are called to a certain ministry and not every believer is called to fill all the roles found in the Scriptures.   There is balance in the Scriptures, which needs to be emulated in the Body of Christ. 
 

            

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