As I have traveled through the journey of drafting the blog segments from the original writings about the chosen life, God continues to speak to my heart about truth. It’s been important for Him to remind me that while I share experiences and tell accounts from my life, it is crucial that it be bathed in prayer and filtered by scripture. Without this process, my writing would just be me perhaps exercising a gift that God has given me, but it would lack anointing. What does this mean? It means that while I might be able to hold attention or tell sweet stories to readers, without it being underneath the sunlight of God’s word, it will lack the power to minister and be used by Him to touch the heart versus stimulating the mind. I ask every time I write to help me keep Him, the main thing, the main thing. This is a good background for today’s trip to the vineyard where today, some of the vines get pruned…
While I have been recently writing about nationality and identity, this is a great time to share this account.
I was 5 years old, when in Sunday school, my teacher began to share about the Israelites, God’s chosen people. CHOSEN. THE JEWS. This spawned the idea in my 5 yr. old mind that since I was chosen — and the Israelites were chosen, we must be related. So, I began to tell a few folks in my class, a few friends, a cousin that I was a Jew. Of course, news of my newly discovered nationality reached my Dad’s ears. I was summoned to the place where he studied, and he asked me a very direct question.
“Have you been telling people you are a Jew? And if so…why?“
In one of my finer theological moments, smiling proudly, I offered proof of my revelation. We left the concept of my weak scriptural deductions talk and moved into a lecture on ethics. Dad gently reminded me of the difference between the truth and a lie. Though Dad relayed, he understood my motivation, he firmly said,”You can’t be telling folks you are Jewish, It is simply not true.”
‘But Dad. I am.”
A heated debate followed. I am sure by now you might have guessed I was somewhat precocious and persistent. The conversation ended, and I was set down on the green leather couch. I was not disciplined for my logic, but rather for arguing against the authority of truth. I had been quite sassy and determined in our conversation.
After being disciplined and considering the merit of his point I conceded his point.
I replied” You’re right I am not an Israelite… but just as Dad reached the door I muttered “I still feel Jewish.” Oh the pursuit of the last word cost me my dinner and an early bedtime that night. When Dad walked away after passing out the penalty he looked back and said “You are not an Israelite but you are stiff necked, I’ll give you that.”
Even those chosen, despite needing rebuke, enjoy a little victory now and then.
This is an account that through the years Dad and I laughed over several times. Often when we disagreed, I would quietly remind him I still felt Jewish and would win a smile from him. That still gave me a sense of being understood and accepted and a little triumphant. But the truth of that lesson has come to me over and over through my life of faith. God has used it to remind me of the difference between faith facts and feelings. While my feelings are authentic and real, they may or may not accurately reflect a truthful perspective on what is going on in my life. God gave me my emotions to be used as a gauge but not a guide. I am to be guided by God’s truth, the Holy Spirit, in all matters and this will often conflict with my feelings. This is a struggle for us all and if not learned, can lead to several do overs in life resulting from poor decision making or wrong priorities.
For example, I may feel I need to shop or treat myself to something new. The fact may be that I can’t afford it or even I have the funds, it may be poor stewardship.
I may feel angry and not ready to forgive a person. If I rely on feelings alone and don’t consider the truth of what scripture says about forgiveness, I will never move forward. I will miss the blessing of how God transforms us through His truth, not to mention continue in sin that will hurt me more than the other person.
Confusing feelings with facts can lead us to discouragement and are used more by the enemy than we want to accept. I may have a rough season of health where I don’t feel well. While it may be true, the enemy will often come and hint that I will never regain our health and recover. This is being overcome by feeling rather than fact. I may have less money than I would like and feel poor, but all I need to do is look around and observe real poverty. God can transform my feeling of less to the fact that I have all I need. I may feel inadequate, overlooked, unimportant, unloved at times but this is not based on God’s truth in His word. He promises I am the apple of His eye, He is aware of me and considers my every need. His love and care for me never wax or wane but are everlasting. While I may feel anxious or worried, God has promised the peace that defies logic based on the fact that He is in total control of the universe. This foundation is critical for surviving and overcoming in the world in which we live.
On the other hand, I may feel like doing wrong but if I succumb to this guide, I will fail and it will result in hurt for myself and perhaps others around me. If I obey God’s word even if my feelings aren’t all in, the truthful principle that God honors my faithfulness and the fact that He blesses obedience makes it come out right in the end. Faith and feelings have a way of catching up. I have never made the right choice that I have been sorry for later. I use the account of Chuck Yeager breaking the sound barrier to explain this concept. Chuck was a pilot in a plane that broke the record and traveled faster than sound which accounts for the sonic boom we hear after the plane goes by. The idea is that the plane is faith In God’s truth. I venture out with this and travel in the direction He leads. The sonic boom is when my feelings catch up with my faith. Note the sound is heard after the movement. My feelings always catch up. God’s Truth will always be reliable whereas my feelings can be based on experiences, lies, distortions or just selfish desires. Truth is absolute. God doesn’t change His truth as man does. A relationship with Christ is founded in truth because Christ is truth personified. Religion has changed its mind hundreds of times throughout history about what truth is, even lowering itself to be subjective and situational. But God hasn’t changed and He is constant and unwavering in all my storms of feelings. I must look to Him and not to the culture around me to maintain balance and peace.
The challenge in the daily is for me to be anchored in Biblical truth and live out what I call the red writing in the bible. This means the words of Christ that are based on all the factual truth about God and His plan for me. God reveals the truth about Himself and the Trinity in the scriptures and talks about me! Yes, the scriptures tell me whose I am, who I am, and what I am about. While it challenged my 5 yr old feelings to learn I was not an Israelite, it did not change the fact that I was one of God’s chosen.
Come to the vineyard next time where the 5 o’clock worker shares about the wonder of being found living the chosen life. .
5oclockworker.com 