Choosing His Way

Paying attention to God's commands - even when it's hard

There are days I wish I could put my Christian faith on ‘Do Not Disturb’ for about fifteen minutes. Just long enough to skip over the whole ‘love your enemies’ thing.

If we’re honest, being nice is really hard when someone seems to have made it their personal ministry to test our patience. Today was one of those days.

I received a rather snooty email from someone who publicly promotes themselves as a champion of unity and love, complete with one of those polite little veiled threats that made me read it twice. And my flesh was ready.

Then God quietly stepped in: “Don’t say it. Don’t give back what you were just handed. Be better. Be bigger. Be humble.”

“BUT GOD... they’re not!” I wanted to shout. (At which point I realised I sounded exactly like one of my kids.)

So, I took a deep breath, dusted myself off, deleted the response I wanted to send, and wrote one I hoped God could smile at instead.

That’s the hard part, isn’t it? God doesn’t lower His standard because someone else lowered theirs. He still asks us to be kind. He still asks us to love. He still asks us to respond with grace when everything inside us wants to respond in kind.

Then these words of Jesus came back to me: “But to you who are listening, I say: Love your enemies, do good to those who hate you, bless those who curse you, pray for those who mistreat you” (Luke 6:27-28 NIV).

Ouch. Apparently, that’s not just a beautiful verse to underline in my Bible. It’s an instruction manual for days like today. It turns out maturity isn’t measured by what I could say, it’s measured by what I choose not to.

Then I remembered: God is the One who guards me. God is the One who validates me. And yes, God is also the One who avenges me. (Strangely enough, I found that last one rather comforting.) Because being a Christian would be so much easier if it weren’t for all the opportunities to actually be one.

Does anyone else relate?

I’ve come to realise that no matter what I feel like doing in the moment, I’m never happier than when I do things His way. It may not always be the easiest path, but it’s always the one that leaves me with peace instead of regret.

Maybe that’s why God said, “If only you had paid attention to my commands, your peace would have been like a river” (Isaiah 48:18 NIV). When we choose His way over our feelings, we may not always win the argument, but we will never lose our peace.