We human
beings don’t like being told what to do. From the age of 2 to the time of a one’s
death, we want to make our own decisions, make our own way in the world. I
remember when I was in my early 40s, my husband and I recycled cardboard and bottles.
Then the city passed a law to force all of us to recycle. To my shame I
thought, “Well, since they are forcing me to do it, now I don’t want to.”
All through
our childhood, we were forced to do many things we didn’t want to do. I did not
want to go to school. I was afraid of everyone there. I did not want to go to
bed so early. I didn’t want to miss some shows on TV. I did not want to go to church.
It was excruciatingly boring and there was no air conditioning. We lived in
Southern California. We had fans with Jesus’ picture on them, but it didn’t
help much.
When I was a
teen, I couldn’t go to dances. The church said it was dangerous because you
hold each other. I couldn’t date until I was 16. I wanted to date at 15. I
STILL had to go to school after years of agony, so I took some sleeping pills.
Not enough. I got my wish for one year. I had a government teacher in my home
and got straight A’s. But the next year, they sent me back to school again.
After acting in crazy ways, my parents sent me to live with relatives in
Canada. No more school, thank you God.
Those
relatives had rules though, and I wanted no rules. I wanted to be with my
boyfriend, drink and have sex. So yeah, I got pregnant and the two families
berated me until I married him. But to tell the truth, I ended up being glad
because I loved my baby daughter and my husband too. We had a second daughter,
but our marriage ended in divorce, which was horribly painful.
So to summarize,
I would say from my experience with my daughters and other people in my family
no one wants to be told what to do. In general, the controversy over masks,
vaccines, guns, and sexual identity, no one in the world wants to be ordered
around by anyone, even if it is good for you.
I’ve been
wondering if that is why many people balk at the idea of God telling them what
to do. Perhaps it is the main reason they don’t want to accept him, walk with
him or pray to him. It’s our pride in ourselves and our independence we don’t
want to lose.
I have
found, through trial and error, that God’s way is always best for me. I was
dating a man, the first since my divorce, he wanted to marry me and I wanted to
marry him. I had been so achingly lonely before I met him. He seemed very nice
and he liked my girls. One night, I asked God if it was okay if I married him.
I heard God speak to me, which was a surprise, he said, “What agreement has God
with Satan?” That verse is in the Bible. Did I listen to God? No, I didn’t. I
kept dating him until something awful happened.
One night I
was sleeping at his place, and when we were having sex, he started to hurt me.
I begged him to stop, but he wouldn’t. The next day when we were with my girls,
he looked at my oldest daughter and said, “She’s going to be a real looker.” I saw
how he looked at her and knew that he was a pervert. I was horrified and broke
off with him. I told God I was never going to look for a boyfriend or husband
again. If he wanted me to be with someone, he would have to send him to me.
That’s how
it worked out that two weeks later, I met my second husband, who was a believer
in God and he still is. He had way more faith in God than I ever did and still
does. We went through hard times, but I’m very glad I married him.
I said to
someone once, “God isn’t asking a lot from us. The Ten Commandments are not
that hard! The first four are about worshipping God as creator of the universe.
The last six are: “Be respectful to your parents, don’t murder, don’t lie, don’t
steal, don’t sleep around on your partner, don’t be envious of what others
have.
Are those
things you want to do? Do you want to murder etc.? Of course, we are all
tempted to do some or all of these things. That’s where the first four commandments
come in. If we worship God and tell him we want to do good things, then he will
put that in our hearts and his goodness covers us. The temptations won’t be so
overwhelming. Still, some of us have sins that come into our minds a lot, some
of us give in to sins a lot. But God says, “Though a righteous man falls down
seven times, he will rise up. The wicked man falls down once.” God lifts us up
time and again as we stumble through this life on this sinful, dark planet. He
knows what we face for he has lived here himself. He was also tempted to do
wrong – he just never did.
I have a
temptation that comes to me a few times a month, but I say to God, “Lord, I don’t
want to think about that.” And then I don’t. He has shown me to just think
about something else the moment the temptation comes. Not that I am perfect,
far from it, but as Paul says, “Not that I have
already obtained all this, or have already been made perfect, but I press on to
take hold of that for which Christ Jesus took hold of me. Brothers,
I do not consider myself yet to have taken hold of it. But one thing I do:
Forgetting what is behind and straining toward what is ahead, I
press on toward the goal to win the prize of God’s heavenly calling in Christ
Jesus.”
Philippians 3:12-14
Who shall separate us
from the love of Christ? Shall trouble or distress or persecution or famine or
nakedness or danger or sword? As it is written:
“For
Your sake we face death all day long;
we
are considered as sheep to be slaughtered.”
No,
in all these things we are more than conquerors through Him who loved us. For I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor
principalities, neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, neither
height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate
us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord.
Romans 8:35-39
Jesus said, “What does it profit a man to gain the whole
world, yet forfeit his soul? Or what can a man give in exchange for his soul? If
anyone is ashamed of Me and My words in this adulterous and sinful generation,
the Son of Man will also be ashamed of him when He comes in His Father’s glory
with the holy angels.”
Mark 8:36-38
