Grace in the Gray Areas
\nCopyright by Shea Oakley
\nAll rights reserved<\/p>\n
Some believers seem to hate ambiguity of any kind, especially as it relates to God. The idea that there are areas of mystery in knowing and relating to Him is intolerable for many. All too often the fear that results from coming face to face with this mystery drive them to attempt to find in the Word of God a clear cut answer to every question. The problem is that our Lord has left some things for us to decide about our lives without a specific directive from Scripture.<\/p>\n
We are told that the Spirit of the law gives life while the letter of the law brings death. It is important to realize that there is no New Testament equivalent of the book of Leviticus. Jesus did not come to micro-manage our lives by giving us a new set of rules, He came to fulfill the law and, in so doing, set us free to live by its true spirit.<\/p>\n
A compulsive, fearful quest to spiritually dot every \u201ci\u201d and cross every \u201ct\u201d in even our smallest actions each day is a sure sign of a heart still in bondage to the law. It needs to be stated here that we are not talking about obvious sin. Sin surely exists and must be avoided. We are also not talking about simply ignoring the counsel of the Spirit in our lives. The question here is this: can we live with the gray areas, with the times in life when bits of Scripture, often taken out of context, simply do not tell us exactly what to do no matter how much we want them to?<\/p>\n
A noted Christian once said this: \u201cLove God and do what you please\u201d. His point was that if you know Christ is in your heart and that you love Him above all things you can trust Him to lead you through the mysteries of life. Believers do not have to be bound by fear of the unknown. We can make choices in the gray areas knowing that God is guiding us each day, at least to the extent we have surrendered to His Lordship in our lives. We can trust that overarching biblical principles, put within us by the Holy Spirit, will help us to not get bogged down in legalism but rather lead lives of purpose and decisiveness. It is true that we will make some mistakes but we need not fear this for, ultimately, our faithful God will enable us to learn from those mistakes as we continue to give over every aspect of our lives to Him.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Grace in the Gray Areas Copyright by Shea Oakley All rights reserved Some believers seem to hate ambiguity of any kind, especially as it relates to God. The idea that there are areas of mystery in knowing and relating to Him is intolerable for many. All too often the fear that results from coming face… <\/p>\n