Accidentally Following Christ

[LightningClap0002]

Is it meaningful to consider what we might desire in a mate? Is desire a wrong thing (Genesis 3:16)? Is it meaningful to ponder whether we will marry at all? Or where we will live, married or not? Or whether we will attend college or not or which one? Or which church we will attend? Or whether we would like to have children or what they might be like? Or what type of career we might like to have? Or work toward any of those things? Is having a dream a good thing or a bad thing? Is having goals a good thing or a bad thing? Should we not ponder the future at all or give thought to anything or anyone who may or may not enter our lives?

This sounds an awful lot like what the teacher in Ecclesiastes 1 went through. His conclusion:

I said to myself, “Look, I have increased in wisdom more than anyone who has ruled over Jerusalem before me; I have experienced much of wisdom and knowledge.”

Then I applied myself to the understanding of wisdom, and also of madness and folly, but I learned that this, too, is a chasing after the wind.

Then I said to myself,“The fate of the fool will overtake me also.
What then do I gain by being wise?”
I said to myself,
“This too is meaningless.”

My beliefs built on a larger spread of the bible as a whole is that life is not about living it. It's not about identifying our own desires, it's not about us; It's all about Him. Am I saying that I am perfect? By no means, but we are told daily to take up our cross and follow Him. There is one question that I have no answer. Is it better to identify our desires so that the sacrifice in following God's desire is that much more powerful? Or does it an act of resistance against God? Or... something else entirely? In Luke 22:42, Christ seems to share a 'personal' desire with God, but acknowledges that God's will should be done.

Can God bring good from evil or bad choices or bad situations or in the lives of those who are not presently following Him? Of course He can and has. Approximately half of all marriages, Christian or not, end in divorce; but that also means that 50% of marriages do not result in divorce.

For me, this is not a question of God's power and sovereignty. God can use rebellion and sin, but that doesn't make it any less evil. God used the fall of mankind to demonstrate the boundlessness of His grace. But does that mean that it wasn't terrible that Adam and Eve ignored God's desire? Is it beneficial to accidentally follow Christ, or get in a situation that God 'can' work for good?

We can't know all of the answers or all of the whys. But we do know that God works ALL things together for good for those who are in Christ Jesus. All means all, even the bad stuff. We also know that God is the author of all wisdom and our Creator. He gave us those gifts for a reason and would surely expect us to use them, otherwise, what value would they have?

I would pose to you this answer. God gave us gifts as tools for Him to use. A hammer or a chisel is only useful in the hands of a master. An ox would not desire to plow a field apart from the master's will. When God speaks about the body of Christ and each one unique and different, you have to remember that God is the head. All parts can only just flop around without constant commands and feedback from Him. I would certainly be willing to expand this with biblical support if you're willing to consider this as the righteous answer.

All are certainly things worth pondering, but doing so seems to lead to more questions than answers...

You say certainly, but I haven't seen this posited in the rest of your post. :/ This seems like too great of a leap, I'm not able to follow you here. If you do feel strongly about this, I hope you will help fill in the gaps.

 

[Jullianna]

This sounds an awful lot like what the teacher in Ecclesiastes 1 went through. His conclusion:




My beliefs built on a larger spread of the bible as a whole is that life is not about living it. It's not about identifying our own desires, it's not about us; It's all about Him. Am I saying that I am perfect? By no means, but we are told daily to take up our cross and follow Him. There is one question that I have no answer. Is it better to identify our desires so that the sacrifice in following God's desire is that much more powerful? Or does it an act of resistance against God? Or... something else entirely? In Luke 22:42, Christ seems to share a 'personal' desire with God, but acknowledges that God's will should be done.


For me, this is not a question of God's power and sovereignty. God can use rebellion and sin, but that doesn't make it any less evil. God used the fall of mankind to demonstrate the boundlessness of His grace. But does that mean that it wasn't terrible that Adam and Eve ignored God's desire? Is it beneficial to accidentally follow Christ, or get in a situation that God 'can' work for good?


I would pose to you this answer. God gave us gifts as tools for Him to use. A hammer or a chisel is only useful in the hands of a master. An ox would not desire to plow a field apart from the master's will. When God speaks about the body of Christ and each one unique and different, you have to remember that God is the head. All parts can only just flop around without constant commands and feedback from Him. I would certainly be willing to expand this with biblical support if you're willing to consider this as the righteous answer.


You say certainly, but I haven't seen this posited in the rest of your post. :/ This seems like too great of a leap, I'm not able to follow you here. If you do feel strongly about this, I hope you will help fill in the gaps.

Those were questions, not my conclusion. My conclusion was more toward the bottom.

As a Christian and as long as we have known one another, I thought it would be a given that we must seek God's will regarding anything and everything, thus the questions. Asking these questions is my way of washing things through the Word hidden in me as I was taught to do, holding to what is good and wise, and releasing that which is foolish and evil as it is shown to me.

Many of the very same questions I pondered in my post are pondered by the Psalmist time and time again in seeking God's will. David made his mistakes and I have made mine, but at the end of my life it is my prayer that it will be said of me what was said of him..... That I was a woman after God's own heart.

This is my last day with my son at home, so I do not have anymore time to give to this, but I did not want you to think I was ignoring your post. Maybe I will have an opportunity to return to it at some later time. God bless!

 

[LightningClap0002]

Those were questions, not my conclusion. My conclusion was more toward the bottom.

As a Christian and as long as we have known one another, I thought it would be a given that we must seek God's will regarding anything and everything, thus the questions. Asking these questions is my way of washing things through the Word hidden in me as I was taught to do, holding to what is good and wise, and releasing that which is foolish and evil as it is shown to me.

Many of the very same questions I pondered in my post are pondered by the Psalmist time and time again in seeking God's will. David made his mistakes and I have made mine, but at the end of my life it is my prayer that it will be said of me what was said of him..... That I was a woman after God's own heart.

This is my last day with my son at home, so I do not have anymore time to give to this, but I did not want you to think I was ignoring your post. Maybe I will have an opportunity to return to it at some later time. God bless!

Enjoy your time with your son!

 

[Jullianna]

*Taking a break from loading the truck. It's HOT here. *

Not sure if this will answer your questions, but this is my line of thinking:

Phil 4:8 [SUP]8 [/SUP]Finally, brothers and sisters, whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable—if anything is excellent or praiseworthy—think about such things.


Genesis 2:18 The LORD God said, "It is not good for the man to be alone. I will make a helper suitable for him."

Since God said it was not good for man to be alone; and
Since God created man/woman and joined them together (Mark 10:7-9) and He only makes good things,

In my mind a godly relationship qualifies as one of those noble/lovely things we are encouraged to ponder. Where we falter is when it becomes more of an obsession than a ponderance, huh?

That said, I do think that since feeling so very alone is something God did not see as a good thing, it probably is not something we should dwell upon. Doing so normally leads to depression in most folks. Perhaps this is why many prefer to look to the future and cling to the hope of a time when they will no longer be alone (even though we do realize that some folks are called to singleness per scripture).

*gotta go *

 

[LightningClap0002]

*Taking a break from loading the truck. It's HOT here. *

Not sure if this will answer your questions, but this is my line of thinking:

Phil 4:8 [SUP]8 [/SUP]Finally, brothers and sisters, whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable—if anything is excellent or praiseworthy—think about such things.


Genesis 2:18 The LORD God said, "It is not good for the man to be alone. I will make a helper suitable for him."

Since God said it was not good for man to be alone; and
Since God created man/woman and joined them together (Mark 10:7-9) and He only makes good things,

In my mind a godly relationship qualifies as one of those noble/lovely things we are encouraged to ponder. Where we falter is when it becomes more of an obsession than a ponderance, huh?

That said, I do think that since feeling so very alone is something God did not see as a good thing, it probably is not something we should dwell upon. Doing so normally leads to depression in most folks. Perhaps this is why many prefer to look to the future and cling to the hope of a time when they will no longer be alone (even though we do realize that some folks are called to singleness per scripture).

*gotta go *

Yeah, perhaps we are butting up against the biggest reason I feel out of place around here.
I am single. I do not think it's great. I do not feel alone.

It's really hot here too; my lawn has needed mowing for the past 3 days, but it's either been sunny and pushing 100 or cloudy and pouring. Tomorrow I may have to just sweat it out.