Affinity with the Above

It's amazing that God's work goes on in the world when the people getting it done are oftentimes oblivious of how they are helping. Our plans are not His plans. Often times someone who is trying to minister to me in one way help me to grow closer to God in an area they had no purpose in.

It's also true that a lot of Christians can't see how they are really useful to God in their knowledge of Him, so they rather hope that because of Jesus, inadequacy is somehow nullified. And that is what I'm thinking upon tonight.

It must be true that believers all over the world are suffering with this sin or that bondage, but it doesn't matter... somehow. If you think about it, the homeless are still finding a warm meal and old widow down the street still lights up her face when she gets a visit from a neighbor. The name of Christ still marches forth, carried on the backs of simple proclamations coupled with a few honest acts of kindness and righteousness.

Meanwhile we are sinners, growing ever-more aware of our own need, for deliverance.

So... the outward life moves the gospel forward, and the hearts of men... oftentimes lags behind. How should we feel about that fight for inward regeneration? I think the answer is to not look too closely for it anywhere down here.

Genesis 3:16 quotes the LORD as saying to the woman, "Your desire will be for your husband, and he will rule over you." I see this as a pattern of Christian effectiveness; the husband's giftedness is to guide all affairs, to determine and originate conduct. Outwardly, there is progression. But the woman is longing for more than just the outward, she wants the whole person, the heart and soul of the inner man. It is unfortuante for a wife's pleasure, that many men in the role of husband excel at the former and are awkward with the latter... as in the whole of humanity. We believers do well at proclaiming Christ and serving others in love but find it more complicated to tame obstinately sinful hearts.

Sometimes, the Christian life seems to be all about one thing: proving to have a heart that is truly in love with Jesus. We all prefer to be around people who appear to do so, more than us, to keep our perspective fresh and encouraged. But in the grander scheme this cannot be where our satisfaction with progression lies. We don't become on-target in life by comparing ourselves to others. We would be better off to simply rest on the guarantees God gave that He will regenerate, and be satisfied with what He gives.

God deigined this existence to be a struggle for the heart. And all hope in that struggle comes from above.