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Are You Sitting on the Fence?

October 7, 2015

Do you wait to see who is sitting on one side before you chose?
Do you go by what you feel like today?
We talked about commitment.
Commitment is faith lived out. We get our faith from Christ. What do you believe?
I believe marriage is ‘until death parts us.’
I am committed to that decision, because God said it.
Because I start with that commitment, when we argue or I feel like running away, that isn’t an option. We have to work out our problems. My commitment helps me to obey God when it gets hard.

God said that children were a blessing. My husband and I decided that we would allow God plan how many children and when we would have them. How many other blessings do you say, “No, I’m not ready now,” or “We have enough”? When we gave that option to God, we didn’t decide what form of birth control to use, God did. (We did breast feed on demand, weaning them when they were two years, so that spaced the babies out, but that is not a guarantee for some people.)

Did I want to reconsider that commitment after baby # ___? Did I want to be sick more than half of my married life because I was hormonal and pregnant or recovering from being pregnant? When continuing to have children became a medical issue (I almost died after the last one), we prayed and chose to stop. But we were committed to believe God that children are a blessing. We’re glad that we did.

We believe attending church is a vital part of a Christian’s growth. Was it easy when we had five children under nine years and we lived an hour from church? Many weeks I spent walking the church hallway with a crabby baby, wondering why I bothered coming. He clearly led us to home-church for a time, but it was not an excuse not to attend regularly, it was obedience to His promptings. Now we again attend church with a group of believers. I sometimes wonder why God has brought us back, but I know He has. Our commitment to obey God keeps us going.

By making these commitments, our choices for other things were determined. By choosing to breast feed on demand, I had to be with the baby 24/7. That meant I stayed at home. That also meant that I couldn’t attend every ladies’ church function or serve much in the church.

That led us to living ‘simply.’ We homeschool. We have no television. Some things we searched out as Scriptures stirred our heart to change. Others we learned from godly couples who mentored us.

Our spiritual walk—is a walk. We learn. We listen. We grow. We change. Many of our choices went against what the world says. That made us different. We were criticized. People asked why? We are in the world but not of the world. We should be different.

If you are not different, if your commitments do not make you a people of God, are you listening to what He is telling you?

What do you believe? Do you search the Scriptures for your walk? If you found those answers, what are you doing about them? Once you chose to obey God, remember it will be tested, tried and given endurance.

“Why do you call Me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ and do not do what I say? Everyone who comes to Me and hears My words and acts on them, I will show you whom he is like: he is like a man building a house, who dug deep and laid a foundation on the rock; and when a flood occurred, the torrent burst against that house and could not shake it, because it had been well built.

“But the one who has heard and has not acted accordingly, is like a man who built a house on the ground without any foundation; and the torrent burst against it and immediately it collapsed, and the ruin of that house was great.” (Luke 6:46-49)

What you believe, you will do. If you make your decisions based on what God says in His Word, you will not be shaken.

That fence board gets mighty hard staying on it. As my son commented, “You don’t sit there long.” By choosing not to decide, you have disobeyed what God is telling you to do today.

Where are you sitting?
What do you believe?
What have you done about it? Don’t let your seat become cold…

Source:

Scripture taken from the NEW AMERICAN STANDARD BIBLE, Copyright 1960, 1962, 1963, 1968, 1971, 1972, 1973, 1975, 1977, 1995 by The Lockman Foundation. Used by permission.

 



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Author of Biblical fiction, married to my best friend, and challenged by eight sons’ growing pains as I write about what matters.

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