Let’s say I’m talking with a Christian friend about the time she had to make a great big decision. Like where to go to college, whether to move to Chicago, whether to buy her house, whether to marry her husband, whether to quit her job. You know, the usual life-changing, life-rearranging decisions which people would rather God just tell us what to do, and grant us the best possible timeline.
So as my friend is describing how she came to her conclusion, she drops the inevitable, “Then God told me….”
- ME. “Okay but how’d you know it was God?”
- SHE. “Well I just knew.”
- ME. “Just knew? How could you ‘just know’? Because it felt like God?”
- SHE. “Exactly.”
- ME. “Well fine; I can work with that. So what’s God feel like?”
- SHE. “Oh, he’s indescribable.”
- ME. “Yeah yeah; we all know the Chris Tomlin song. Now try to describe him.”
- SHE. “I just felt an incredible peace about my decision. That’s how I knew it was God.”
- ME. “I know what you mean. I feel an incredible peace after the barista hands me my morning coffee. But I’m pretty sure that’s not divine revelation. Describe him better.”
- SHE. “I just wasn’t worried about my choice any longer. I knew I made the right one.”
- ME. “You stopped worrying, so you figure God turned off the worries. And if you were still anxious, that’d mean you didn’t make the right decision. God uses your emotions to steer you the right way.”
- SHE. “Yes.”
- ME. “What about those people in the bible who still worried God wouldn’t come through for them? Like Abraham. The L
ORD seemed to be taking too long to give him a son, so he borrowed his wife’s slave and put a baby in her.Ge 16.1-4 Shouldn’t God have turned off his worries?” - SHE. “Abraham should’ve had faith.”
- ME. “Abraham did have faith. Three different apostles used Abraham as an example of the very best kind of faith.
Ro 4.9, He 11.8, Jm 2.23 But great faith or not, Abraham was still anxious about what God was gonna do, and decided to jump the gun. God didn’t steer Abraham through his worries. Abraham’s worries were totally his doing.” - SHE. “God would’ve taken them away if Abraham had only asked.”
- ME. “You don’t think Abraham asked? Obviously he asked, ’cause God told him more than once he’d have a son—and he didn’t mean the slave’s son. God even took human form and visited Abraham personally, just so he could promise him again.
Ge 18.1-15 Why go to all these lengths when all he had to do was turn off Abraham’s worries?” - SHE. “Abraham wouldn’t let God turn them off.”
- ME. “Because Abraham was in total control of his worries.”
- SHE. “Yes.”
- ME. “Kinda like how you’re in total control of your worries, and whether they’re on or off has to do with you. Not God.”
- SHE. “Right. Wait… no. You’re trying to mix me up.”
- ME. “Nope. Just trying to point out
emotions aren’t the Holy Spirit. ”