And the Lord direct your hearts into the love of God, and into the patient waiting for Christ. 2 Thessalonians 3:5
The church at Thessalonica faced opposition from without and heresies from within. Paul laid out for them the course of a genuine Christian walk to help steer them through those distractions. It sounds very simple and easy until you try it
A Christian walk will make you spiritually fit, but unlike walking for physical fitness, it is meant to take you somewhere other than back to the starting point. The destination is described, and the route is outlined, incompletely. Safely reaching the goal requires three things of the traveler.
First, you need a guide. The Lord, in the person of the Holy Spirit, is the only guide capable of steering you safely from start to finish. His leading, at times, seems very mysterious. He does not think like a man and where we may expect to go left, He tells us to go right. If we make a wrong turn, He waits there for us to come back and take the right path.
We know we’ve taken a wrong turn when we are no longer moving into the love of God. If our actions, words, and thoughts are not growing the love of God within us, we have veered from the Way. There are lists available to help identify evil fruit and good fruit, but nothing makes the differences clearer than the Spirit’s instruction in a “hands-on” situation.
But He doesn’t just shout out the proper direction as we go. Most of the time He speaks so softly you have to really pay attention to hear at all. There are many ways to figure out the right way. There is one sure-fire way to know you’ve gone astray and we’re all very familiar with it. It is called Guilt. If you’re feeling guilty you’ve either done something wrong or failed to do what is right.
Sin, and its accompanying feeling of guilt, are not to be lightly esteemed. However, in all likelihood it is not the end of the world, nor the end of your walk. It is a course correction that is made complete by sincere sorrow and repentance. It is a learning experience, and you will revisit it again and again until you succeed.
Being directed into the love of God will produce a patient reliance on God for all things pertaining to this life and beyond. This by no means just sitting around. It means engaging life to the fullest confident that you, through the Spirit, will experience all God has for you.
I will close on a cautionary note. Experiencing all God has for you is not a carefree adventure. You will learn to be abased and to abound, suffer and rejoice. We will learn to be content no matter the situation or the state you find yourself in at any given moment.
I told you it wasn’t easy.
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