12 March 2022
The most unhelpful people in the world will tell you, "I'm only trying to help."
Look at the way God works in the Bible. He does the most incredible things before your eyes. Most of the time, He won't tell you what He's doing in your life because you wouldn't listen anyway. If you were willing to listen, He wouldn't have to do so much that gets your attention. And if you really wanted to hear from God, nobody would have to tell you how it works.
The only reason He jolts us around is because of our natural fallen tendency to listen to the voices inside our heads, not the Voice in our hearts.
People who are blind to their own motives are likely to say all kinds of things that they learned from some other fool. We are designed to model ourselves on those we admire, never mind why we admire them. In American culture, we model ourselves on the various models presented by mainstream sources, a smorgasbord of nonsense that is meant to divorce us from our convictions. You can get any flavor you like except the one that means following the Covenant. There are enough false images of Jesus to confuse anybody who isn't grounded in faith.
Even the word "faith" is so perverted by common usage that we have to go out of our way to explain it as a feudal heart-borne commitment to the Lord of Heaven.
When you walk by faith, it is for certain you won't draw attention to yourself. If God wants you in the limelight for any reason, He will draw the attention of those who need what He gave you. You will simply go about your mission without concern who's watching or not. Sure, take the time to develop your talents for public presentation, if that's your mission and God grants the talents. However, that actual work is the glory of the Lord, so you should always be reflexively humble about it. Serving Him is a privilege you could never earn.
Your convictions will tell you this is how you bring yourself into line with God's design for humanity. You will know instinctively that the whole issue is God's glory. You will know instinctively that the greatest benefit you can ever receive is just basking in the light of His reputation. You'll always be so grateful for that warm glow.
Inevitably, in this fallen world, things will not turn out as you expect. They certainly don't turn out as God expects, so why should you be surprised when something is poorly received? They crucified Jesus, remember? You will never, ever need to say, "I was only trying to help!" Nobody who follows Jesus will say that -- ever. That statement is the first mark of a liar, a self-deceived fool.
That's the sound of someone who takes themselves too seriously. These are the kind of people who have this wild notion that whatever they perceive as God's will for themselves must somehow be God's will for all of mankind. Notice there are two parts there. First is the false understanding of God's will for them. They seldom get to that place by checking their convictions. Convictions lead to confidence, not arrogance. Second is that they clearly don't understand how God works, and so believe that God isn't allowed to give two different people different commands.
The kind of goofy binary thinking that God would never put us into conflict is a blasphemous lie. Conflict is built into the Fall. It is part of our mission in redemption to show how to handle conflict. The conflict is not the thing; that's just built into our human existence. It's the way we address it that marks us as Children of the Heaven.
Yes, God most certainly does tell one servant one thing, and another servant something that conflicts with that. That's how He tests us. It should amuse us, not make us angry. It's God entertaining us by His brilliance. It helps remind us of the boundaries of our feudal domains granted from God. A major element in faith is to keep checking your convictions moment by moment, because conviction/faith is a living thing that changes and develops. We should be in awe at the wonder of how God moves in our lives.
People who say that stupid phrase -- "I'm only trying to help" -- have rejected faith and conviction. They are trusting their own reason and logic, and trying to confine God to the box their intellect can construct. They are trying to restrict God from His freedom to choose things that don't conform to our human reason. Reality is not orderly in the sense that it conforms to our logic. It will always exceed our human capabilities. God is bigger than your thoughts.
So when our efforts fail to have the expected results, there are different ways we can handle it without pointing back to how wonderful and smart we are. Most of the time it involves shrugging it off. We should never be surprised, never offended by it. Just chuckle and go on with the mission. You aren't omniscient, and can't predict how things turn out. All you can know is that you were obedient, regardless of the outcomes. People are going to be offended, and there's nothing you can do. Faithful obedience and peace with God means you never need to defend your choices.
Shadrach, Meschach and Abed-nego answered and said to the king, "O Nebuchadnezzar, we do not need to give you an answer concerning this. If it be so, our God whom we serve is able to deliver us from the furnace of blazing fire; and He will deliver us out of your hand, O king. But even if He does not, let it be known to you, O king, that we are not going to serve your gods or worship the golden image that you have set up." (Daniel 3:16-18 NASB 1977)
Never say, "I was only trying to help!"
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