The mystery of his will (is)… to bring all things in heaven and on earth together under one head Jesus Christ. In him we were also chosen, having been predestined according to the plan of him who works out everything in conformity with the purpose of his will. Ephesians 1:10-11
Ten days after I proposed to my girlfriend—now my wife—she was very nearly killed in a motor vehicle accident. Stopped behind a horse and buggy, she watched helplessly as a motorist driving 50 mph slammed into her vehicle’s rear end plowing up under the car and flipping it onto its roof. Through the broken glass and confusion she climbed out of the driver side window with barely a scratch. Or so we thought. It turns out the severe whiplash to her vertebrae would only be the beginning of twenty years of back problems, chiropractic adjustments, and radiating muscular tension. Her back needs regular attention to keep it healthy and in alignment.
What a picture of the world we live in. The world is still in whiplash. Self-fulfillment and self-trust have sent humanity careening out of God’s intended plans for peace, goodness, and life. Now, we live in a world outta-whack. Romans 8:20-22 says, “For the creation was subjected to frustration…the creation itself will be liberated from its bondage to decay and brought into the freedom and glory of the children of God.”
Radiating pain, confusion, division, and calamity are the constant state of a world that chooses to live based on each person’s unregulated needs, desires, feelings, and opinions instead of in relationship with God’s Spirit. Jesus’s mission, still being fulfilled this very moment, is to bring all things back into alignment with God’s dreams and designs; Jesus is bringing the government of his Spirit back to planet earth.
Who are the enemies to his mission? Our feelings and emotions bully us around. Our bodies can tell us how to act. Our insecurities can cause us to undercut others, and our hubris can cause us to dominate the unpretentious. The busyness and worries of life can distract us. Evil thoughts, darkness and lies are regularly tempting us to act out of order. And social pressure from our communities, or even our friends, punish us or pamper us to act in ways they approve of. Together all of these influences can cause our lives to be out of alignment with God’s Spirit.
God's solution is to train us to live connected to his Spirit that he reinstalled in us. “So I say, walk by the Spirit, and you will not gratify the desires of the flesh” Galatians 5:16. The battle we face is not with people, but with the influences that push us out of alignment. In a million little ways our lives are being readjusted to flow out of God’s character and power. My apathy needs to be immersed in God’s passionate zeal. My confusion needs replaced by God’s clarifying wisdom. When frustration or impatience rise up inside of me, I need a greater measure of God’s compassion for others. Where I feel lonely, or anxious, I need reconnected to God’s overwhelming supply of peace and joy. The Apostle Paul says, “Put off your old self, which is being corrupted by its deceitful desires; (you were taught) to be made new in the attitude of your minds; and to put on the new self, created to be like God in true righteousness and holiness” Ephesians 4:23-24.
The solution to the world outta-whack is simple yet profoundly tedious work: each of us need to reconnect to God in relationship and allow the leadership of his Spirit to tell our feelings and desires how to act. We don't live based on how we feel, we live based on what is true. Those two worlds couldn't end up farther apart.
Tags: truth, emotions, feelings, pain, spirit, confusion, adjustment, new self, old self, walk by the spirit
