Nothing to Distract, Part II

As I live to defend my rights, I am a distraction to the renown of God...I know my selfishness, my covetousness, and I am sobered as I think on these words. Yet, in Christ, there is another possibility for me: As I surrender my rights and allow Christ to respond through me, I will bring renown to God. To lay down my rights that others may see Christ, to embrace His truth over my own feelings and emotions, this is to allow my imaginations to be captured by Christ. As I allow Him to captivate my imaginations, I decrease. As I decrease, He is free to express Himself through me...and others can then see a true picture of Him. Christ living through me will say more than my words could ever express. His life in me is the call to all that is right.

A favorite story of mine, which magnificently demonstrates lives that desire to decrease that Christ may increase, is found in Acts 16:22-36. Sitting in the inner cell of a jail with their feet in stocks, we find a stripped and beaten Paul and Silas. They were treated in this manner because they cast demons out of a young girl whose owners used her as a fortune teller. Once the owners realized that their fortunes would no longer be amplified by this young girl, they were furious with Paul and Silas. They brought Paul and Silas before the authorities and accused them of slandering the Roman laws and customs. As a result, here sat Paul and Silas, feet in stocks, and yet instead of wallowing in their circumstances, instead of wailing, crying and questioning, they prayed and sang hymns to God. They praised their God, knowing that despite the change in their circumstances, He had not changed. They knew that His thoughts and purposes for them were full of love.

This is amazing in itself, but it is not the end of the story. As Paul and Silas sang, the prison was shaken, the doors flew open, and their chains were released. The prison guard, certain that the prisoners had escaped to freedom, took his sword and was about to kill himself, but Paul cried out, "Don't harm yourself! We are all here!". The prison guard was overwhelmed. He went before Paul and Silas and asked them what he needed to do to be saved. He then took Paul and Silas home to his family, and he and all his family believed in God.

This story speaks to me of freedom and understood purpose. Because Paul and Silas understood truth, because their imaginations were captured by the truth of God, they were internally free. Even though they were externally beaten and chained, they were filled with joy and rest. It was this freedom and understood purpose which steadied them and caused them to remain within the prison after their chains had been released. If they had run as soon as the doors were opened, they would not have fulfilled a part of the purpose which God had designed for their imprisonment...and the prison guard would probably have known an eternity in agony rather than eternal security.

It would have been very easy for Paul and Silas to focus on themselves within that prison cell. To think on their discomfort...to feel outraged that God would allow this to happen to them...to care more for their own lives than for the life of the prison guard...to have thoughts that were consumed with release...but instead, they chose to rest in the One who loved them. They did not allow their circumstances to control their reaction, rather they praised the God who had captured their thoughts and imaginations. They saw this situation as an opportunity from Him, and they did not want to miss what He was going to do in them or through them. They wanted God's renown more than they wanted release.

I wonder how much my desire to be released from struggles, inconveniences and disappointments has hindered God's renown...I do not want my selfishness, my covetousness, to obscure the glory and truth of God. I long to wait on the Lord as Paul and Silas waited on Him, to surrender all my rights to the Lover of my soul and allow Him to capture my every imagination. May I see every moment of my days as an opportunity to decrease that God's renown may increase.

The path of the righteous is level, O upright One, you make the way of the righteous smooth. Yes, Lord, walking in the way of your laws, we wait for you, your name and renown are the desire of our hearts. Isaiah 26:7-8

Nothing to Distract, Part I

In the last couple weeks, the Lord has repeatedly brought my attention to the truth that every moment of my days is an opportunity to live for His renown. There are so many distractions which encompass me, both internally and externally: busyness, irritations, disappointments, heartbreaks, loss, expectations, rejection, choices of others, sickness...the list goes on and on. All of these distractions, if they capture my focus and imagination, can in turn affect me in such a way that I become a distraction to the renown of the Lord.

In II Corinthians 12:7-10, we find Paul in a similar situation of distraction. The Lord allowed something in Paul's life which Paul refers to as "a thorn in my flesh". This thorn in Paul's flesh was greatly disturbing to him. He went to the Lord three different times, pleading with Him to take this thorn from his life. The Lord's response to Paul was, "My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness."

When Paul received this answer from the Lord, a connection was made in his spirit. A deep understanding filled him and he said, "Therefore I will boast all the more gladly about my weaknesses, so that Christ's power may rest on me. That is why, for Christ's sake, I delight in weaknesses, in insults, in hardships, in persecutions, in difficulties. For when I am weak, then I am strong."

These words greatly encourage me. They show me that the distractions which the Lord allows in my life are opportunities for His strength to be displayed through me. The question is: will I recognize these distractions as opportunities for His renown, or will I demand to see my own expectations fulfilled?

Romans 12:1 tells me that my spiritual act of worship is to offer my body as a living sacrifice, holy and pleasing to God. I am called to be an offering of uninterrupted worship. In essence this means that every part of my life is to point to God...nothing about me should detract from Him. Uninterrupted worship is what Jesus talks of in John 4:23...true worshippers will worship the Father in spirit and in truth...

Worshipping in spirit and truth means that my thoughts and imaginations are devoted to the truth of God. Nothing else is allowed to rule over my thoughts and imaginations. II Corinthians 10:3-5 says, For though we live in the world, we do not wage war as the world does. The weapons we fight with are not the weapons of the world. On the contrary, they have divine power to demolish strongholds. We demolish arguments and every pretension that sets itself up against the knowledge of God, and we take captive every thought to make it obedient to Christ. In other words, nothing that the world has to offer captivates me more than Christ -- not even its weapons! My imaginations are captured by the very Word of God.

Too often, my default reaction in distraction is to fight like the world. Belittling words are met with defense...hindrance is met with impatience...inconveniences are met with grumbling...ailments are met with complaint...the unexpected is met with fear...but in Christ, these default reactions need no longer be the norm for me. If they have surfaced, it is because I have allowed my thoughts and imaginations to be taken captive by the arguments and pretensions of the world. When this happens, I am allowing a situation to control me, permitting it to develop into such a distraction that it becomes a stronghold in my life...it has taken a stronger hold on my thoughts than the truth of Christ. Sadly, as a result, worship of the Father is rudely interrupted, for my focus is directed toward defending my own rights rather than living for His renown.

Part II will soon follow...