Not long ago a reader asked me to help me understand what was wrong with an email she had received from a writer whose email list she subscribed to.

It was one of those that sounded good but sounded . . . a little off. She just couldn’t quite put her finger on it.

I took the time to break it down for her, and now I want to offer the same for you.

First, I want to say, this writer says some good things and most likely means well.

Here is the email for you to read yourself, and then I’ll break it down below. See what you think.

The email

My dear ones!

We need not be afraid!

For even now, the Lord our God, our Sweet and Humble Savior, is laying the way for us before our feet. The life before you now is not random. The life before you is a special gift and request from the Almighty.

Will you receive the life He offers? Will you walk this way that He is unfolding before you?

Will you give yourself in love to God through this little way that lies before you? Will you let God give Himself to You?

Life in God is simple.

It is life in myself that is complicated and ugly.

Life in God is simply the receiving of all things from the Father and the giving of all things back to the Father.

I receive a sleepless night, I receive a crying child, I receive two hundred people wanting healing, I receive a day at work, I receive, I receive.

Always and in everything, I receive the will of God who loves me, and in His infinite humility and tender care, He involves Himself in every detail of the life He makes and gives to me.

And then I must give myself back. I give myself to the hours awake, to the crying child, to the two hundred people, to my work, to all the ways the Lord asks of me.

But I must give more than services, I must give all to my Lord. I must give Him my exhaustion, my worries, my sinfulness, my rage, my delight, my great incapacity, my sorrow, my wishes.

I must give all those parts of my heart and my desire to my Lord because I am too small to keep them and they would crush me.

But in the hands of my Lord, I am not crushed, and I need not worry.

I am a little one.

And the Lord makes the way for me and lays it at my feet. And He holds me as I walk. And He has mercy as I fail.

He gives everything to me, and He has already worked everything for my good. I need only to trust His boundless faithfulness and merciful love. I need only to walk the way that He is placing before my feet.

Glory to God forever!

Your mission, should you choose to accept it . . .

Now that you’ve read it for yourself, would you mark anything that seems a little off? Then you can ask the Lord to give you His wisdom and clarity about it. Make notes about what He shows you.

By doing this, I don’t mean to be unkind to someone who may be a well-meaning child of God. But it’s important for us to mature as believers, with our Holy-Spirit-trained senses to more and more be able to discern what is true and helpful from what is “off” and unhelpful, and why.

When you’re ready, you can then read my commentary below.

The email with my commentary

My dear ones!

We need not be afraid!

Actually, the Bible teaches three kinds of fear, and two of them (appropriate fear of God and appropriate fear of danger) can be good and helpful. It is only “fear of man” (and perhaps crippling fear of the unknown) that is rebuked in the Scriptures. So a distinction needs to be made here.

More about this in Untwisting Scriptures book #3.

For even now, the Lord our God, our Sweet and Humble Savior, is laying the way for us before our feet. The life before you now is not random. The life before you is a special gift and request from the Almighty.

This writer isn’t making space for the destruction wreaked by those who are working against God. This is a very real factor in this world that needs to be taken into consideration.

Will you receive the life He offers? Will you walk this way that He is unfolding before you?

This is beautiful, but the writer doesn’t offer anything helpful to explain how this is to be accomplished. Instead a passive, almost Buddhist-type approach is being presented.

Will you give yourself in love to God through this little way that lies before you? Will you let God give Himself to You?

Yes and yes, certainly. But the writer is being simplistic here.

Life in God is simple.

Life in the Spirit is one of the “simplicity of Christ” (2 Corinthians 11:3), unimpeded by “works of righteousness” that can make our lives extremely heavy.

So that part is simple, for sure. The direct access we have to the Father, the way made clear and open.

Life on this earth can be complicated by a number of things besides our own foolish and/or sinful choices. Primarily we need to acknowledge various aspects of the brokenness of this world and also the wickedness of others.

It is life in myself that is complicated and ugly.

The writer is drawing a dichotomy: I can live simply in God or I can live complicatedly in myself. It is as if these are the only two ways to live.

I believe this is a false dichotomy.  Let us also make allowances for a life that one has wanted to live for God that has been complicated by painful life circumstances or by another person. 

Life in God is simply the receiving of all things from the Father and the giving of all things back to the Father.

This is beautiful, but in this physical realm there is often the complication of evil that must be overcome. It is evil in very practical forms: abuse, betrayal, abandonment, and many other configurations. This is too often ignored in the Christian world.

I receive a sleepless night, I receive a crying child, I receive two hundred people wanting healing, I receive a day at work, I receive, I receive.

Do you receive an abuser trafficking you? No, and it would be appropriate for the writer to tell his or her readers that there are some things we would do well not to  receive. We escape from them instead.

This very passive attitude that does not discern good from evil sounds rather Buddhist in its approach.

Even those of us who haven’t experienced evil at this level need to be made aware of it.

Ultimately we want our “powers of discernment trained by constant practice to discern good from evil” (Hebrews 5:14).

Always and in everything, I receive the will of God who loves me, and in His infinite humility and tender care, He involves Himself in every detail of the life He makes and gives to me.

This is true, but in what way does the Lord involve Himself? Not that we may be passive, but often that He will arm us to resist evil in its various forms.

And then I must give myself back. I give myself to the hours awake, to the crying child, to the two hundred people, to my work, to all the ways the Lord asks of me.

We do want to give ourselves to the Lord’s work, but not in a way that will be unhealthy. The Lord Jesus Himself took time out to rest and to spend with His Father.

And make sure that you don’t confuse “all the ways the Lord asks of me” with all the ways someone who claims to be an authority asks of you.

But I must give more than services, I must give all to my Lord. I must give Him my exhaustion, my worries, my sinfulness, my rage, my delight, my great incapacity, my sorrow, my wishes.

It is not helpful to say that we give the Lord these things. There is no practical instruction for doing this, and it doesn’t work.

Instead of “giving the Lord my exhaustion,” I can ask the Lord to give me wisdom and strength in getting the rest I need.

Instead of “giving the Lord my worries,” I can ask the Lord to give me His perspective on the things that are worrying me and help me understand which things I should do something about and which things I should leave in His hands.

Instead of “giving the Lord my sinfulness,” I can ask and expect Him to help me see myself as He sees me and to help me walk in the freedom from sin He has declared in me (Romans 6).

Instead of “giving the Lord my rage,” I can turn to Him from any sin causing the rage, I can ask and expect Him to show me what is at the root of my rage, to heal any wounds from which the rage springs, and to create in me the Christlike character He has offered me.

Instead of “giving the Lord my delight,” I can simply rejoice that I can delight in the things that also delight His heart.

Instead of “giving the Lord my great incapacity,” I can ask and expect Him to continue to increase my capacity according to His limitless capacity.

Instead of “giving the Lord my sorrows,” I can go to Him with the great sorrows of my heart and find that He grieves with me over the brokenness of this world and over my own pain.

Instead of “giving the Lord my wishes,” I can ask and expect Him to help my desires/wishes be aligned with the desires of His own loving heart.

I must give all those parts of my heart and my desire to my Lord because I am too small to keep them and they would crush me.

Again, giving these things to the Lord is not helpful terminology. It’s the kind of language that has resulted in ever so many people saying, “I keep taking my burdens to the Lord and trying to leave them there, but I keep taking them back!”

A simple intellectual assent will never solve these problems, even an assent that sounds good like, “I will leave the parts of my heart and my desires with the Lord.”

But in the hands of my Lord, I am not crushed, and I need not worry.

This is true and creates a beautiful picture. We are safe in the hands of the Lord.

I am a little one.

Yes, we are small compared to the Lord, for sure, but I want to make sure that we don’t think of ourselves as children with the Lord. That may be an attractive way to think, except for the fact that over and over again in the New Testament the Lord tells us to grow up and be mature adults, strong in Him.

The Scripture I was studying most recently in this regard is Hebrews 5:11-14.

About this [Jeus being our high priest after the order of Melchizedek] we have much to say, and it is hard to explain, since you have become dull of hearing. For though by this time you ought to be teachers, you need someone to teach you again the basic principles of the oracles of God. You need milk, not solid food, for everyone who lives on milk is unskilled in the word of righteousness, since he is a child. But solid food is for the mature, for those who have their powers of discernment trained by constant practice to distinguish good from evil.

The Lord wants us to be grownups, walking in Him as in a deep level of understanding of who He is and who we are.

And the Lord makes the way for me and lays it at my feet. And He holds me as I walk. And He has mercy as I fail.

These are beautiful and true.

He gives everything to me, and He has already worked everything for my good. I need only to trust His boundless faithfulness and merciful love. I need only to walk the way that He is placing before my feet.

Again, this is beautiful, but “walking the way He is placing before my feet” sounds so easy. Life is often not easy at all but very, very difficult.

Paul, who served the Lord with great passion (see the “striving” chapters in Book 6) wouldn’t necessarily disagree with this, but he would have a lot to add to it about how difficult life can be in following our Savior and doing His will.

Glory to God forever!

Amen. As we take steps in this life in the power of the Holy Spirit, we can trust that the Lord will lead us and we can walk forward in Him, armed with His strength and wisdom, discerning good and evil, knowing who He is and who we are.

Glory to God forever.

Thoughts to carry with you

We don’t want to remain children. We want to be able to discern what is in line with Scripture and the heart of the Lord and what isn’t, whenever we encounter it. This is one aspect of what the Bible calls becoming mature or perfect. Growing up. (See 1 Corinthians 13:11, 2 Peter 3:18, and Ephesians 4:11-16, besides the Hebrews passage above).

This is a greater challenge than simply passively receiving from an “authority.” But this is what the Lord wants from us.

I’m not an authority either. I may offer something helpful now and then, but I have no authority over you, and you are under no obligation to believe me unless what I say truly does line up with the Scriptures and the heart of God.

I felt a little silly saying that, but for someone it might be a useful reminder.

You, instead, are called to have an adult faith rather than a childlike faith. We start as children, and God honors that, but as we grow in faith and understanding, we will have the maturity God calls us to.

Faith that is not passive to simply “receive” whatever happens, but faith that, in the prayerful power of God, can take action.

It takes wisdom. It takes discernment. It takes spiritual strength.

This is where our God calls us. Let us rise and follow.

 

Did you observe something I missed? Let me know in the comments!

 

 

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