Hemmed In

 “But God has hemmed me in to nothing, that I may have nothing, do nothing, want nothing, save Himself. Lord, Thou seest the impossible of my hopes, and I expect deliverance from Thee is some days.”  -Jim Elliot, January 18 1951, Shadow of the Almighty

When I look at my life I can sometimes feel hemmed in, but I must realize that fear, sin, laziness and complacency are not God’s work of hemming us in. That is our refusal to do as He has called us to do. We can be hemmed by that lack of relationships, lack of gainful employment, lack of opportunities to serve Him, we can be hemmed in by many different ways. God has a purpose in hemming us in, but when we hem ourselves in we turn from His purposes. Laying around watching television, pursuing our own interest, wasting time playing video games and other things we do to escape God’s plan, is our way of hemming ourselves in. Psalms 139:5 states, “You hem me in--behind and before; you have laid your hand upon me.” And Hosea 2:14 says, “"Therefore I am now going to allure her; I will lead her into the desert and speak tenderly to her.” When God hems us in, He uses this time in the desert to speak to us. When we hem ourselves in, we use this time to avoid God from speaking to us. A desert is a dry place to be, it shows us our need for God. It is a time to consider what God has done for us, and ponder what He wants us to do. We have nowhere else to go, but to Him. We can do everything to avoid Him, but in the end, we will have to deal with something in our lives. If we come out of it the same person we were when we entered into it, then we can expect to come back into it again. To be hemmed in is to grow closer to God and see what He wants us to do with our lives. If we refuse to allow Him to work in us and through us, then we can expect to repeat this lesson, over and over again.

Love Them as Jesus Loves Us

What happens to you when you experience suffering and loss in your life? What happens when those you love, hurt you? When we love someone we have to keep in mind we love a limited person. We have in our minds what we want that person to be; we have a fantasy of someone who has boundless energy to give us, boundless love to offer us when we need it, and boundless trust. We have built up in our minds someone who does not and cannot exist. And when that limited person shows us their limits, we want to run from them. When they show us their selfishness, their coldness, their half-heartedness and their mean spirit, we feel deeply hurt and deeply angry. We want to withhold our love for them, we feel abandon, so we want to abandon, we feel tossed aside, so we want to toss them aside, we feel hurt, so we want to hurt them.

In Ephesians Paul writes, “Husbands, love your wives, just as Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her to make her holy, cleansing her by the washing with water through the word, and to present her to himself as a radiant church, without stain or wrinkle or any other blemish, but holy and blameless. In this same way, husbands ought to love their wives as their own bodies. He who loves his wife loves himself. After all, no one ever hated his own body, but he feeds and cares for it, just as Christ does the church--for we are members of his body.”

As we think about what Paul said, we must keep in mind that we are the bride. We are a nasty, hard-hearted, mean-spirited, selfish, ambitious, self-serving mean bride at times. We are limited, like those in our lives who have hurt us. Christ didn’t suffer, and die for a bride who is pure and spotless. Romans 5:8 states, “While we were still sinners, Christ died for us.” When we hear the words sinner, do we really truly understand the full measure of it? Romans 1:29-32 says, “They have become filled with every kind of wickedness, evil, greed and depravity. They are full of envy, murder, strife, deceit and malice. They are gossips, slanderers, God-haters, insolent, arrogant and boastful; they invent ways of doing evil; they disobey their parents; they are senseless, faithless, heartless, ruthless. Although they know God's righteous decree that those who do such things deserve death, they not only continue to do these very things but also approve of those who practice them.” And what was Christ response to the list in Romans 1:29-32, while they were wicked, evil, depraved, greedy, self-serving, slanders, arrogant, boastful, heartless and cold to one another, Christ died for them. This is the church Christ died for in Ephesians. This is the bride who we are, and what has Christ demanded from us? “Love one another as I have loved you.” (John 13:34) When another turns their backs on you, what does Jesus call us to do, “Love them as I have loved you.” When others treat you with coldness, what does Jesus expect of you? Love them as I have loved you. When others slander you, what does Jesus want from us? Love them as I have loved you. When they belittle you in front of others, how does Christ want us to respond? Love them as I have loved you. When you feel betrayed, what does Jesus demand from us? Love them as I have loved you. When someone shows us their limits, what do we need to do? Love them as Jesus loves us.

I Desire Mercy, not Sacrifice

But go and learn what this means: 'I desire mercy, not sacrifice. Matthew 9:13 

When you need to forgive someone, what does God want from you, mercy or sacrifice? Do you sacrifice to forgive others? Do you let go of an offense and sacrifice your desire for justice? Is this what God wants from you? Or does God want you to forgive because you have mercy and have given them mercy. Sacrifice can be a denial of your desires, while mercy gives love. One can be done without love, while the other is based in love. One can be done out of obedience alone, while the other can be done with obedience rooted in love.

When you desire forgiveness from others, which one do you want? Do you want to be forgiven sacrificially or out of merciful heart? Do you want someone to forgive out of obligation, or out of love?

When it comes to God, do you want His forgiveness coming from sacrifice? Do you desire forgiveness because He can’t break His word, or do you want God to forgive you because He loves you, because He has compassion and mercy? Then go and do as He has done for you, go and learn what this means, I desire mercy, not sacrifice. 

The Fruit of Change

When the woman saw that the fruit of the tree was good for food and pleasing to the eye, and also desirable for gaining wisdom, she took some and …

-Genesis 3:6

God first gave the woman to the man; he also gave them plenty of food in the garden. A beautiful garden and fellowship with God, but was that enough?

What has God given us, what has God put in our life that is in His will? A relationship with someone, a spouse, a career, a place to live, a place to worship, and a place to serve, but is that enough? Are we like the woman who saw the fruit, the fruit in the garden of plenty? It pleased her eye, in a beautiful garden full of trees and plants given to her by the Lord. Also see saw it desirable for gaining wisdom, when she had the fountain of knowledge from God. But it wasn’t enough for her; she wanted something more, something more pleasing to her, something that seemed to have more wisdom.

Is there something or someone you desire that is outside the will of God that seems to be more desirable than what God has given you? Something or someone who you pursue that gives you the idea that it will make you more fulfilled than what God has given you? Is it riches, wisdom, power, possessions, beauty or something else that the world says will make you happy? Do you really believe it is true, but what happens when you take a bite of the fruit? What happens is everything changes and you can’t return to what life was before. Not only does it drastically affect you, but those who are in your life and who would be in your life in the future. The relationship falters, the spouse leaves, the career is lost, the house is gone, the church changes, and the place of service is replaced. What you thought the fruit would bring didn’t happen, and those whom you didn’t concern yourself with are affected, broken, lost, and/or changed in a way that can’t be restored. And why is this? Because what God gave you wasn’t enough, and you like the woman took some and ate it, and paradise was lost…

The Inconvience of Love

I gain nothing. Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. It is not rude, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs. Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres. Love never fails. 1 Corinthians 13:4-8

Love can be one of the most inconvenient things in the world. When we want to hate, we are commanded to love. When we are angry, we are called to forgive. When we want to be selfish, love cries out to sacrifice. Whatever our human natural desires, love calls from the other direction to do the opposite of what our nature wants. This is clear in 1 Corinthians 13:4-6, which says loves does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud, it is not rude, is not self-seeking, is not easily angered, keeps no record of wrongs and does not delight in evil. How many times would you rather be envious, boastful, proud, rude, self-seeking, or easily angered? When we are hurt do we like to keep a record of wrongs, or delight when something evil happens to those who are our enemies? The inconvenience of love can be very difficult, but we must remember we aren’t called to love when it is easy. We aren’t called when it feels right, or when people are lovable. We are called to love at all times, when it is convenient, or inconvenient. We are commanded to love when we are with people who are hard to love, to love those who don’t return our love. We are to love those who make it difficult by their words or actions. We are also demanded to love when we don’t feel like it, or when we would rather do what we want. We are called to love others when we would rather be alone, when we don’t want to go to the expense of loving them. Love is just plain inconvenient, it doesn’t go along with our plans and desires. We have a group of people in our lives which we want to love and be loved by. We have others whom we really don’t care too much about, and we have others whom we don’t want to love or be around. But as inconvenient as love is, it demands us to love them, no matter which group they are in.