If you know me at all, you probably can't recall hearing me say "God's been doing this" or "The Lord's been showing me that."
I've rarely ever been altogether sure that that's the case for one thing. Even when I was in the midst of an ocean of people who spoke like that and used it as a yardstick for spirituality, it was extremely difficult for me to assign responsibility to God for every event in my life or - especially - for any decision I made. I've always carried doubt that I haven't done God's will. And frankly, most of the time I figured I hadn't really sought it like one should anyway. I suppose I have this 19th century revivalist idea of what that should be like: Six hours on my knees, sweating and weeping and begging. Essentially a mini-Gethsemane every day.
But beyond that, I usually feel like people who use the "God told me" are not really hearing from God, that they're just following their reason or emotions and spiritualizing it along the way. That may sound like an unbeliever's point of view but hear me out.
Most of the people that speak that way, if they really heard from God on every choice they made and were really receiving all this warm and wooly confirmation on a regular basis, would have completely different lives than what they do. I suppose that, from my impossibly perfectionist standards, I can't imagine that God is all behind them getting that new Lexus when they're butt-deep in debt or going on that cruise when they haven't ever set foot in a mission.
It's not that they're bad people. It's just that they're people. And we are all trying to feel better about our lives. I'm not trying to judge anyone. My life is just as filled with contradiction. But I am so scared of all the religiosity I see in ALL of us. I want to scream, "Can't you just admit that you're guessing? Can't you admit that you did that because you need validation, not because God told you to? Can't we all just admit that we rationalize away most of our lives?"
Have I never felt like I've heard from God? I'm not saying that. There have been many occasions when I knew "This is definitely a God thing" but they are far from routine. And they normally didn't have anything to do with blessing me.
3 comments:
Awesome post, Sharp! I appreciate you having the courage, humility and honesty to admit the what I think is the truth for most, if not all, of us on this subject.
I agree that many things people attribute to the Lord speaking to them very likely are not that at all.
There are some definite "God things" in my life. But mostly I will admit that I am just trying to see how the events of my life fit into the context of scripture, if that makes sense.
I have had three horrific things happen to me this week. Did God cause them to teach me something? Did he "allow" the devil to do it to test my faith? Did I make a poor choice along the way that was unknowingly against His will? Is it natural consequences of the sins of others? Or were these random bad things that can and do happen to people all the time?
One thing is certain. Whether we are in a period of receiving blessings or seeing them removed from our life, our response should be, "Blessed be the Name of the Lord." Job 1:21
He told me that!
Exactly the questions I ask, Mike! I'm sorry things are not going well but I hope this was some help.
I also think that most of the time all we can do is just to try and square things with what we know and believe and trust God to handle the rest. How exactly that happens, I have no idea.
I've always brushed it off as folk philosophy but it gets more true the older I get!
I love this post Sharp. Your thoughts are honest and genuine.
I have a post I'm working on where I try and explain a time when I did hear from God. I'm finding I have a hard time giving testimony of that as I can't stand when people are always saying they heard this or that from God.
Your post have blessed to me today.
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