The Bondage of Guidance
Mark Dever hit the nail on the head in this short article. There is no doubt that I have been in the past severely bound to what he describes as the bondage of guidance. I have several thoughts on this particular issue and maybe in the future will share it more fully. For now, please read Dever; to some it will resonate for some it may not, for me it did:
"This will be brief. The way many Christians practice seeking God's will before they make a decision amounts to spiritual and emotional bondage. Christ has died to give us liberty and freedom (Rom. 6; Gal. 5; I Peter 2). We can only know the truth about God's will by what His Spirit reveals to us. He has revealed God's mind authoritatively in His Word. We should give ourselves to study what He has revealed. Personal reading, meditation, sermons, friends and books are all available to us to help us to better understand God's revealed will...
Most decisions I've made in my Christian life, I've made with no such sense of subjective leading. Maybe some would show that to be a mark of my spiritual immaturity. I understand this to be the way a redeemed child of God normally lives in this fallen world before the fullness of the Kingdom comes, Christ returns, and immediate, constant, unbroken fellowship with God is re-established.
A subjective sense of leading--when we've asked for it (as in James 1:5 we ask for wisdom) and when God freely gives it--is wonderful. Such subjective sense of leading, however, are too often in contemporary evangelical piety, binding our brothers and sisters in Christ, paralyzing them from enjoying the good choices that God may provide, and causing them to wait wrongly before acting.Beware of the bondage of 'guidance.'"
(HT: JT)
1 comments:
i've never thought of it in this light. profound. and so true. sportstalk radio host, colin cowherd spoke a few weeks ago about the importance of the "gut feeling." in his discussion, he suggested that listeners always go with their gut, and when you think about going against your gut, say it out loud "me and my friends are going to rip off a wendy's at 4 in the morning." you don't need council on this. you need to go with conventional wisdom. perhaps God redeems our "gut feeling"
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