On Being Right

Have you ever been in a situation where you were certain you were right? I have.

So what is my response when I think I am being wronged?

1. Stand and take it. Maybe I’m wrong. Maybe I’m stupid. But I don’t really see any other option. Times are tough. And they are only going to get tougher. Light will become lighter and dark will become darker. We are promised hardship and trial and false accusations. But do not fear. Our Loving Father will defend us and will do with us what He wills for our ultimate betterment and perfection and for His glory on the earth. It is an honor to be refined by the Lord. If you allow it, His yoke will be easy and His burden will be light.

2. Go after the real enemy. We are blind. We think the people are the enemy. They are not. They are tools of the enemy. If we only had any clue of how spiritual everything is. Those human “enemies” are oppressed and in bondage and it is our obligation to them to intercede on their behalf. In fact, I think that when we are the ones being attacked we probably stand in a place of greater spiritual authority to help set our attacker free. Do not take this lightly. We are instructed to bear one another’s burdens. Do not let the enemy suck you into whatever he is doing to them. In fact, if you do not know how to pray for them determine what you are feeling and experiencing and it will likely be how the enemy is attacking them.

3. Love conquers all. It may be God’s plan that you be vindicated and it may not. Lay down your life and continue to love. Be quick to forgive lest anything attach itself to you. Love, love, love. Bear all. Believe all. Hope all. Endure all.

4. Walk in grace and humility toward others. Okay we should do this anyway. But when God is about the purifying process it often comes in many areas of life at once. You will not just have one conflict…you will have 7. The enemy’s point is to overwhelm you…to make things that by themselves are no big deal huge because of all the other things you are dealing with. God’s point is to push you to your limits so they are no longer your limits. Walk in grace and humility and be on guard.

5. Cry out for mercy. There is nothing we can do apart from God’s mercy. You need it. I need it. The attacker needs it. The city needs it. The nation needs it. The world needs it. Cry out for mercy!

6. Don’t let the attack distract you from where God was taking you. The timing of the attack was not coincedental. The attack could have come at any moment. What were you doing leading up to it? Likely the enemy was trying to keep you from that thing whether it be praying for a friend or moving your life to the mission field.

7. Realize you just might be wrong. Maybe you are not being wronged…even if you cannot possibly see it any other way…even if you are 100% convinced you are right…even if everyone you know is 100% convinced you are right. You may be wrong. Continually seek repentence.

The Fruit of the Spirit is Love

There are many ways to judge “success” in the Christian life. But it all boils down to love. One of the greatest reasons we cannot move forward in our Christian walk as individuals, communities and nations is lack of love. Lack of love produces disunity and disunity produces weakness.

We have often heard messages about ourselves as living vessels of God. We need to get right with God so that we can be whole, an uncracked pot, that can be filled to overflowing with the Spirit of God. But as Americans one of our great blindnesses, and our great weaknesses, is that we see the Bible primarily as a book to the individual. It is true that we must absolutely surrender to the Spirit of God individually. However, that is not enough. We are not just individuals whose lives happen to bump into each other. The Bible was written to a community as a whole. Jews did not think in terms of the individual like we do. They thought in terms of community. Our family, our church, our city and our nation are each their own pots which must be an uncracked pot so that the Spirit of God can fill it to overflowing. And love is the glue that hold everything together.

God Himself provides the example of unity of love in the Father, Son and Holy Spirit. Each is a distinct person. Each has a distinct role and mission. Yet they are so unified and One that our simple human minds have great difficulty grasping how three can actually be one. And the great manifestation of this unity is Love. The Father manifested it in giving up His only Son. Jesus manifested it by walking in love daily while on earth and in giving up His very life. The Spirit manifests it in passing it along…filling us with love.

But why is love so critical? Self is man’s great curse. And only in loving others and laying our lives down for them do we counteract and even defeat that curse. Surrender to God is hard enough. He is loving, all-knowing and infinitely concerned with our well being. Surrender to others is just down right scary. They are human. They are selfish. They may take advantage of our surrender and abuse us in it. But as in our surrender to God, our job is to love our brothers and sisters, God’s job is all the rest. The Holy Spirit’s job is conviction. Our job is to walk in love.

But how do we walk in love? As we surrender to God love becomes our nature. Areas where love is hard are areas that are unsurrendered. They are areas where we do not yet fully trust God. It is easy for a lamb to be gentle. Gentleness is its nature. Likewise it is easy for a wolf to be cruel and devour the sheep for that is its nature. Our born nature is self. It is easy for us to look out for ourselves. Our God nature is love and that becomes easy for us as we submit and let God transform our self nature.

“If anyone says, “I love God,” yet hates his brother, he is a liar. For anyone who does not love his brother, whom he has seen, cannot love God, whom he has not seen.” 1 John 4:20 We prove our love to God by loving our brother. We think great thoughts of love toward God. We worship and praise. Those are important. But how God judges our love for Him is against the standard of how we love our brother.

We pray for unity. We cry out for unity. But what we really mean by seeking unity is that we want the others to see the light and follow what we believe. What we really seek is victory. So I challenge you to start taking the other road. Don’t seek victory, seek love. Seek uncomfortable ways to submit to and love your brothers. Seek to do great acts in a hidden way. Seek not the easy road, but the loving road. There is nothing easy about love. There really is nothing easy about the Christian life. It is a life where we must do a 180 from the nature we are born with to the nature we die with. It is a life that is fully our own, but none of our own. Seek love!

This synopsis is taken from Absolute Surrender by Andrew Murray.

Part 1 of this series looked at Absolute Surrender to God. Part 3 will explore how to be separated unto God and what that means in the process of surrender.