(ThyBlackMan.com) Life is demanding, it pulls us powerfully in different directions and we agonize greatly because sometimes the impetus is in different directions. Believers are not like Malthus, we are unable to look in opposite directions at the same time, and yet when we choose to look in one direction the conscience sometimes pricks us because we have chosen one way and ignored the other. How do you know that your choice is correct? Is there some way for you to know you are correct because you can point to a scripture and say, “God says…” No, not always.
This is the dilemma facing believers every single day for all of us want to make right choices and be at peace with our conscience and more so be at peace with God.
In truth this is not a new problem for this same problem confronted a believer of high integrity and he dealt with it in a most compelling manner. Here is how Job in the midst of his suffering declared his position. “Though he slay me, yet will I trust in him: but I will maintain mine own ways before him.” (Job 13:15) The KJV puts it thus and I nearly always quote the KJV because of its well-earned reputation for accuracy, but in this case I prefer the Easy to Read translation, “I will continue to trust God even if he kills me. But I will defend myself to his face.” (Job 13:15 ERV)
Most of us by now know the story of Job how that he lost everything; riches gone, children gone and wife gone and now finds himself in a state of misery with running sores all over his body and his dearest friends Eliphaz the Temanite, Bildad the Shuhite, and Zophar the Naamathite trying in their different ways to persuade Job that he had sinned and that is what caused his calamity.
Job was adamant that he had not strayed from the path of righteousness, he readily and fully and daily confessed his transgressions, he stuck rigidly to all the ordinances and requirements of God, he sanctified his family as befits the priestly function of the patriarch and he honoured God in his daily living.
Job in fact was asserting two very important things.
First, I am walking in the light that God has shone on my pathway and second, if by walking in God’s light it is bringing me death, then so let it be since I am determined to keep trusting him.
This is profound and humbling.
How many of us is quick to dump God or procrastinate or backslide because walking in God’s light cause us problems with workmates, or friends, or a lost promotion or some favour or another.
Why is it that so many people think that being Christian is about self, what I want, my pleasure, what pleases me and what life has to offer me?
There is no greater happiness than having a blessed relationship with Almighty God.
There is no joy more profound and lasting than having a transformed life with a conscience void of offence towards God and man.
There is no peace more satisfying or love more fulfilling than knowing that your destiny is put in the hands of Jesus who made the ultimate sacrifice for humanity.
You DO NOT have to be right about everything; only God is all-knowing.
You DO NOT have to be flawless in your daily living; believers are humans with human frailty.
You DO NOT have to pretend that all is hunky-dory; life is not like that.
Everything that you need to be, every decision you need to make, every posture that you need to adopt and every word that you need to speak or thought to think finds a correctness and suitability as you walk in God’s light.
Walking in God’s light does some marvelous things.
It gives credit and honor to God for our achievements because without that light those achievements would have been impossible.
If through providence we become rich and wealthy we take a right attitude, like Job, and understand that God gives and God takes away; blessed be his name.
It helps us to be the best we can be, like Jesus Christ, fulfilling our potential not in man’s eyes but in God’s eyes and looking forward to hearing those beautiful words, “Well done thou Good and faithful servant.” (Matthew 25:21)
It removes the focus from us, miserable creatures soon gone and forgotten and puts it where it truly belongs; on the Great God and Saviour of all humanity – for He is worthy, “Trust in the LORD with all thine heart; and lean not unto thine own understanding. In all thy ways acknowledge him, and he shall direct thy paths.” (Proverbs 3:5-6)
In trying to please all people and being pulled here and there, why not do a simple thing? Trust God and keep walking in his light and you will discover that it works tremendously well. You can do no greater than walk in the light, “We should live in the light, where God is. If we live in the light, we have fellowship with each other, and the blood sacrifice of Jesus, God’s Son, washes away every sin and makes us clean.” (1 John 1:7 ERV)
Staff Writer; Henderson W.
You can contact this Christian brother at: HWard@ThyBlackMan.com.
