We Are Family!

His unchanging plan has always been to adopt us into his own family by bringing us to himself through Jesus Christ. And this gave him great pleasure. Eph 1:5 (NLT)

His plan is to make us one of His own. We are sons and daughters. We are beloved in a way that earthly relations cannot adequately imitate. The best earthly father; the most loving, kind, gentle, patient, forgiving, generous, compassionate, investing-in-us, attendant, wise, and helpful man cannot begin to approach our Father in heaven.

Like a pouting child in the corner or one preoccupied with our own pursuits, we do not see the constant love that He has for us. Too often trials and tragedy comes to our lives, and in these times we suffer and hurt. The world seems lonely and without answers. A loved one lost. Cancer diagnosed. A marriage ending. A desperately desired thing not gained. Oh, the cares of the world can overwhelm us. And we know not where to turn. What friend can speak us to and bring peace again? What earthly mother or father can replace that which has been lost? What doctor can heal the cancer that does not respond to medicine?

Jesus our friend; God our father, Holy Spirit our ever present comforter. He is our rock. He is our comforter, healer, hope, peace... the only path for changing that which burdens our heart. He is more faithful than any friend and more capable than any other. If there is a retraction of that which the world deals to us, it is in Him. And all for free. It is not bought with good works or perfect obedience, but with the currency of belief and faith. A simple, “I believe in you. I acknowledge you.” will do. He is there. He is there to hear our cry and to comfort.

In all your ways acknowledge Him, And He shall direct your paths.

In all your ways acknowledge Him, And He shall direct your paths. (Prov. 3:6)

Simple, straightforward. If I acknowledge God in all that I do, He will direct my path. In fact, if I acknowledge Him in all that I do, He will actually make my path level and smooth. That’s meaning of “direct” in the Hebrew translation.

Think of this in the terms of the world. Each day, as I walk to work, go to school, eat breakfast, whatever, I acknowledge that God is there. And in exchange, He shows me a path for my life that is smooth and level. Right? How come it doesn’t work that way?

In my life, “smooth” and “level” is definitely not the norm. There are bothersome insurance companies, tax returns, kids who don’t do what is good for them or easy for me, people who promise work but never come through, and credit card companies that don’t understand my cash flow. This path isn’t level, and it definitely isn’t smooth.

What then? How can His word, which is always true and flawless, be understood? If reality doesn’t match His injunction, what am I to do? Shall I reject His word, and ultimately Him because He is incompatible or worse, irrelevant? Or shall I pretend that the incompatibility does not exist. Yes, yes that’s what the word says...ignore the man behind the curtain, blah, blah, blah.

NO! Neither. Herein lies a perfect example of changing our minds. Let us be conformed to God’s understanding of the verse, and then we will see the truth and the power of it in our lives.

To acknowledge Him in everything we do is to promote Him and His ways to the superior position, and to choose to lower ourselves to an inferior position. Let’s look at the context of verse six and we will see His meaning.

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.

Be not wise in thine own eyes: fear the LORD, and depart from evil.

God says to us –

• · Trust me
• · Don’t rely upon what you can see or perceive
• · Don’t be your own wisdom
• · Fear me, and
• · Depart from evil

To experience the smooth and level way, we must acknowledge Him in every area of our lives. To acknowledge Him, we do five things. First, we must trust Him. We must truly believe that He has the right understanding of all things and His purpose for us is good.

Second, we must put off our own understanding. God is not saying that we have no understanding of our own. He made us with an intellect and an ability to choose. But, He is saying that there are things that we are not aware of that affect the outcome, and these are things of which we are not aware. In the parlance of the Wizard of Oz, “Well, that’s a horse of a different color!”

Third, don’t rely on your wisdom. Your wisdom comes from the world. It’s built on your experiences in life, the desires of your body (which is corrupt), and what seems like the right thing to do at the moment. In every way, your wisdom is less perfect than His. He knows all. He is not influenced by a corrupted body. He is perfectly aware of what will be for your good. So His wisdom is better.

Fourth, fear Him. Not “fear”, as in that dude is going to hurt me. But fear, as in the respect and honor that we give to a doctor who is trying to save the life of a child. He knows best. If there is anyone that can make a difference, then he can. God is worthy of that respect, no matter how much we may wish to differ or to rebel against it. He knows all, is in all, and is timeless. He can see the end before the beginning. Respect that. Honor that. Know that with all this power and knowledge, His ultimate purpose is to benefit you.

Finally, depart from evil; not because He will hate you or cast you out. But because where there is evil He will not be. When we invite evil into our presence, then it envelopes us. Not because evil is greater, but because He loves and respects us enough to allow us to choose our path, and in the place where evil is, we have made a choice to have it instead of Him. Flee from evil, so that we will always remain with Him, and in His perfect will.

Five steps; trust Him, don’t rely upon your own understanding, accept His wisdom, respect Him, and flee from evil, and your path will be clear, smooth and level.

Turn off Your Life (Self) Support

There are some areas of our lives that are on life (read self) support and they need to die. “Life support” sustains a life that nature no longer can. In medicine it can give a severely injured or sick person a chance to recover. But in the spiritual life Christ never intended for us to have “life support”.

People on life support are non-functional, they do not interact with anyone, they are not conscious and cannot give life to others around them. People on life support are focused on sustaining what they have, even if it isn’t working very well. Instead of moving forward they are looking backward.

In life, God intended that there would be times of death and rebirth. Accepting Jesus is just one example of spiritual death and resurrection. But after we become Christians there are times and seasons that require us to die again. “Life support” – all of our efforts to remain where we are and resist the “death” that God is trying to bring – prevents us from moving into the new, the better that He intends for us.

Think about it. What areas of your life are non-functional? Not interacting with others? Not producing life around you, and in you? Turn off the ventilator. Stop trying to sustain the old life and trust Jesus to resurrect a new, better life for you. Read John 11 and Haggai 2.