Nudge Not The Hand

I write this morning for my benefit, and if God wills for my children or grandchildren someday. If somehow it is helpful to the one and a half people who read my blog, then that will be an added benefit, I suppose.

What the Spirit of God has urgently impressed upon me this morning is something that I want to put down and return to frequently because I am so weak in remembering things that I ought to remember.

Recently I have been like a child learning from his father to ride a bike, or I have been like a hard-headed child learning to ride a bike. Imagine the father of this child first looking through his picture window at his son crashing and burning time and again. His son is bleeding and bruised and finally frustrated. The father had asked his son several times if he would like some help, but his son had refused each time. But, the father had sensed that his son was about to quit. He sneaked up behind his battered son and gently took hold of the seat of the bike as the son pedaled down the street. The son looked back and smiled from ear to ear as he realized how fun it was to ride a bike and how much his father loved him. Up and down the drive they go with the son smiling from ear to ear.

After a few trips, the boy’s pride once again grips him; he reaches back and gently nudges his father’s hand away. Without saying the words, he is saying to his Father, “I can do it by myself.” 

The patient father releases his grip but compassionately stays right behind. The little boy begins leaning; his front wheel begins to jerk back and forth; he does not even notice that he is heading for a deep ditch. The father again takes the back of the seat, rescuing his son from an inevitable disaster. This time, the son remembers. While yet hard-headed and far from becoming an expert cyclist, he has at least begun to learn the need he has of his father. He is little aware of the injury that awaited him if his loving father had not been there for the rescue.

This illustration breaks down if carried out, for though this little boy may learn to ride a bike without the instruction of his father, I will never be able to walk through this life without the instruction of and obedience to my heavenly Father.

The Lord has been gracious over the past few years to teach me that my sonship had nothing to do with my choice. I love Him because he first loved me. Learning that salvation has been all of grace, all of God, and all for His glory has been humbling and assuring.

Now, assured of my sonship by His word, rather than my performance as a redeemed son, I am often like a hard-headed child, nudging my Father’s hand from my life and by this saying, “I can do it by myself.”

All of Paul and Peter’s epistles first lay the foundation of our sonship as being a work of God alone for His glory alone:

“...to all who are beloved of God...called as saints…” (Romans 1:7) 

“to those who have been sanctified in Christ Jesus, saints by calling…” (I Corinthians 1:2)

“...who gave Himself for our sins so that He might rescue us from this present evil age, according to the will of our God and Father, to whom be the glory forevermore. Amen.” (Galatians 1:4-5)

“But when the fullness of the time came, God sent forth His Son, born of a woman, born under the Law, so that He might redeem those who were under the Law, that we might receive the adoption as sons. Because you are sons, God has sent forth the Spirit of His Son into our hearts, crying “Abba! Father! Therefore you are no longer a slave, but a son; and if a son, then an heir through God.” (Galatians 4:4-7).

“Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places in Christ, just as He chose us in Him before the foundation of the world, that we would be holy and blameless before Him. In love He predestined us to the adoption as sons through Jesus Christ to Himself, according to the kind intention of His will, to the praise of the glory of His grace, which He freely bestowed on us in the Beloved.” (Ephesians 1:3-6)

“For I am confident of this very thing, that He who began a good work in you will perfect it until the day of Christ Jesus.” (Philippians 1:6)

For He rescued us from the domain of darkness, and transferred us to the kingdom of His beloved Son, in whom we have redemption, the forgiveness of sins.” (Colossians 1:13-14)

“And although you were formerly alienated and hostile in mind, engaged in evil deeds, yet He has now reconciled you in His fleshly body through death, in order to present you before Him holy and blameless and beyond reproach” (Colossians 1:21-22)

“We give thanks to God always for all of you, making mention of you in our prayers; constantly bearing in mind your work of faith and labor of love and steadfastness of hope in our Lord Jesus Christ in the presence of our God and Father, knowing, brethren beloved by God, His choice of you; for our gospel did not come to you in word only, but also in power and in the Holy Spirit and with full conviction…” (I Thessalonians 1:2-5)

“Peter...to those...who are chosen according to the foreknowledge of God the Father, by the sanctifying work of the Spirit, to obey Jesus Christ and be sprinkled with His blood: May grace and peace be yours in the fullest measure. Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who according to His great mercy has caused us to be born again to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead…” (I Peter 1:1-3)

“To those who have received a faith of the same kind as ours, by the righteousness of our God and Savior, Jesus Christ: Grace and peace be multiplied to you in the knowledge of God and of Jesus our Lord; seeing that His divine power has granted to us everything pertaining to life and godliness, through the true knowledge of Him who called us by His own glory and excellence,” (2 Peter 1:1-3)

So now, after this much-needed refresher on who has rescued me from inevitable disaster, I thrust myself into His arms to keep me safe. He has given me His Spirit, who He jealously desires to dwell in me (James 4). 

Once, an uneducated man who was without much education in the Bible, and had grown up in a criminal environment, said to me: “I think the most important verse for a Christian must be ‘quench not the Spirit.’” That stuck with me. I think he was on to something.

The peace that the Lord gives by the forgiveness of sin is corrupted when our life is full of ease and comfort, and material blessing. We think we are riding along just fine, and before we know it, and we nudge the Spirit away with little compromises. Perhaps God has not called us to yield all of our bodies as a living sacrifice. Maybe we CAN serve God and money. Maybe these little idols of mindless entertainment, earthly kingdom-mindedness, and idle words and meditations are not hindrances to my calling as a Son.

But God has warned us in many places to be sober, vigilant, ready, walking worthy, running, holy, free of idols, suffering, loving, and living as seated in heavenly places. Yet, as our adoption as sons was wrought by His power, so will be our obedience as sons.

Without even a backward glance, I so often nudge the hand of the Father (the indwelling Spirit) from my life. I begin to lean, but my childish ignorance does not notice; my wheel jerks back and forth, but I smile in my selfish indulgence; I do no see the ditch lurking, but my loving heavenly father gently takes hold with a kind smile, for He has given His life for me. He will never let me go. I have heard His voice.