Abiding in Christ Part Three

When Jesus declared allow the little children to come to me and forbid them not for of such is the kingdom of God, he was showing us something profound.

When children are small they are so easily influenced by loving parents. The ability to relate and connect come easy. They more often than not want to be like their mother or father. They seek to imitate the ones they love. This is usually how it works in a loving family.

When the teenage years hit kids begin to think for themselves, and so they should. But if they lose respect and the affections grow dull they feel they know about as much as the parent if not more and something in the relationship begins to change. Often a tension emerges. Conflict occurs.

In their quest to assert their independence and make their own decisions they don’t even realize how much it is influenced by a greater respect for their peers than their parents, and more conflict arises. The once close relationship with mom and dad changes.

Likewise in our walk with God there are things that enter our hearts and begin to compete with our affections and respect for the Lord.

The enemy comes and begins to convince us that we should have long since been able to handle some things on our own. After all they are petty things we should know enough to just do it. He’ll even use the righteousness of the law to snare us. He’ll try to get us to move under good works to establish our sense of righteousness.

The goal of the enemy is to move us to a place of independence in our hearts which automatically draws us away from our place of abiding in Christ.

This is best evidenced in the temptation of our Lord in the wilderness.

Every temptation the enemy hurled at Jesus was Scripturally based. Satan never used an anti Scripture temptation he simply sought to twist the intent of the Scriptures.

He wanted Jesus to prove Himself by acting independently from the Father. To take up good things to prove He was the Son of God. He wanted Jesus to establish self affirmation. Why else would he say, “if you are the Son of God, then….”

But Jesus never removed Himself from His dependence upon the Father for the works He would perform. He withstood the attempt of Satan to move Him from abiding in relationship to the Father.

This battle is not foreign to any of us. You feel it every time you stop at an intersection and see someone holding a sign saying will work for food. Many know the condemnation when the light turns green and nothing was given. Why the condemnation?

There are many causes that are good out there. Many projects started by men with pure motives and good intentions. But pure motives and good intentions does not make it God’s will for every believer. This is why Jesus could respond easily to the criticism of the woman who poured expensive perfume on His feet when they said why was not this sold and the money given to the poor?

Their is the things in God's timing and there are the things that we want it to be God's timing but are not. Jesus was connected to the Father and in tune with the Spirit as a result and could discern that this woman was acting according o the Spirit. Meanwhile the men criticizing her were too busy thinking their idea was superior and more righteous than what she was doing.

Many a seemingly good work has been done by a non abiding believer. If these men had gotten their way they would have sold the perfume and given money to the poor and everyone around them would have applauded them for their generous hearts. But Jesus would not have been anointed for his death as a result and the greater purpose of the moment would have been missed.