Before you decide to stand on something, it’s generally a good idea to know what it is that you’ll be standing upon.
I once went on a date with a boy who was afraid of water, and I somehow convinced him to go walking in a river with me. Being slightly more reckless than he, I climbed up on the Pride Rock of the river and prepared to jump off onto what appeared to be the sandy shoreline a few feet below. As I prepared to leap, he hesitantly asked, “Michelle, are you sure that ground is safe to jump onto? “
“Ground is ground.” I replied with confidence as I threw myself off the rock.
Ten minutes later, the thigh deep sludge I had landed in finally relinquished it’s hold with a juicy slurp as I yanked my foot out. My flip flops never stood a chance. In a not so beautiful exchange, they were sucked into the depths as the riverbed reluctantly let me go. Mud covered and panting I looked back towards the rock and laughed. Like a trail of soggy breadcrumbs I had left a wake of disheveled slime and mud over 5 feet long. Deciding that the shoes were a hopeless cause I counted my losses and walked home barefoot, laughing nonetheless.
Apparently ground is not always ground when it comes to riverbanks in Maryland; although it sometimes appears that way.
I think this can be applied to doctrine in much the same way. Sometimes I find that I base my beliefs on my experiences, feelings or my own reasoning rather than the Word of God, and in doing so I mistake quicksand for a firm foundation. I begin to walk by sight and not by faith, when it really needs to be the other way around. Then when I take a leap of faith, like laying hands on someone for healing, I land in the muck and get bogged down rather than on my feet and running. Then when I get stuck and weighed down, I suddenly feel the need to rationalize why my life doesn’t look like Jesus’s when He said I would do the same things He did and greater.
Dan Mohler put it well when he said, “If you can’t find it in the life of Jesus, don’t find it in your belief system.”
After several “meh” days of feeling heavy and worn out last week, I realized that I had begun to entertain a lot of ideas that are directly contrary to the way Jesus walked and it was sapping the life out of me! For instance, because some of the people I prayed for did not manifest healing that I could see, I started to entertain the idea that “it might not be God’s timing to heal them.” But as Dan Mohler also pointed out, Jesus never said that to anyone, ever. He never said, “I would love to heal you, but it just isn’t your time” or “I would heal you, but God is teaching you something in your affliction.” So if Jesus never said that, why would I?
Jesus is the image and manifestation of the invisible God, and He only did what He saw God His Father doing. Then He gave His followers all His authority and told us to do the same things and greater! I dunno about you, but I refuse to let twisted doctrine rob me of the abundant life Jesus made available to me on the cross. I don’t want to leap into sludge and lose my sandals! I don't want to trudge through the smile of confusion and uncertainty. I want to leap from greater heights and hit the ground running on the promises of God!
So that's been my prayer the past few days, that God will give me understanding to help me really know what it is that I stand upon~ His Word! What are you standing on today?
