The Lord has been taking me on a journey lately that has challenged some of my thinking, challenged some of my belief systems in trying to bring together the word of God, the heart of God, and His unconditional love for his people and it is bringing me into such a freedom that I am so excited where the Lord may take this, I am so thankful to the Lord for this journey even though at times it has been very difficult.
As ministers of the gospel (of which we are all as Christians called to be), part of our job in the Lord is to as it is written in 2 Timothy 15 is to “Be diligent to present yourself approved to God, a worker who does not need to be ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth”.
We are called to continually grow in our understanding, revelation and relationship with the Lord. If we are remaining as we are ,then our relationship in the Lord is not a growing healthy one so anything that might challenge some of your thinking, challenge your walk in the Lord, is a good challenge.
Some of these challenges we may be presented with is our thinking on topics such as the homosexual issue, the government, justice, sex before marriage, finances, actually probably any topic where our perceived right and wrong is involved or areas you may be struggling in as you are still awaiting answers.
So how do we have our opinion on what we believe is right and wrong and yet still love and walk in relationship with the people we don’t necessarily agree with or even like?
The word talks about that we fight and quarrel because we don’t get what we want.
(James 3) And so as christians who have freely given themselves over to a walk that follows Jesus walk, who laid down his life for a people who didn’t agree with him, who did not love his life so much as to shrink from death, that it brought life to those who didn’t deserve it, life to you and me, then what right do we have to hold onto our opinions, our self-righteousness of what is right and wrong and not be willing to follow Jesus example and give away our inheritance, our blessing, our rights to a people that we may not necessarily agree with or even like, as Jesus did.
It’s a good challenge because if we only love those who love us, or put another way if we only agree with those who agree with us, we will not be broadened or challenged in a way that will push us into Jesus for the answers that we seek and that is where we find true freedom in such a way that it changes the lives around us as we truly learn to love those who we may not in our own strength be able to love or agree with.
Love covers all and so I encourage you not to ‘run’ or ‘walk’ away from relationships simply because you may not totally agree with things, theology or anything else, but be willing to be a learner and to have your eyes opened to what Jesus might say into the situation, or do, as He is our example we are to follow. There is so many answers found in Jesus that we will never stop learning and growing in Him and with those around us, if we only allow to ourselves to be teachable and ask Him for revelation and understanding on things.