It worked out as well as it could, I think, but it made me wonder if our attitudes toward this world and this life wouldn't benefit from the same consideration. We have a tendency to view things in a proprietary manner—it's MY world, MY life, MY home, MY opinions and feelings. No, it is not, not if you are a servant (slave) of God. …It is no longer I that live, but Christ lives in me…Gal 2:20; always bearing about in the body the dying of Jesus, that the life also of Jesus may be manifested in our body. For we who live are always delivered unto death for Jesus' sake, that the life also of Jesus may be manifested in our mortal flesh (2Cor 4:10-11); that you no longer should live the rest of your time in the flesh to the lusts of men, but to the will of God (1Pet 4:2).
My home should be a place where God rules, not "the man of the house," certainly not the children. My life is run by God's laws, not my likes and dislikes. I don't even get to think what I want to think (Phil 4:8).
Service is, by definition, neither easy nor convenient but, like being offered hospitality in such a generous and loving way that gratitude springs forth almost spontaneously, the same should happen in our attitude toward God. He allows us to live in this world, the world HE created and owns. He blesses us in a life we do not deserve, especially in this culture. The least we can do is live in a way that acknowledges the fact that this world is not our home. In fact, it is not ours in any way at all.
A Psalm of David. The earth is Jehovah's, and the fulness thereof; The world, and they that dwell therein. For he hath founded it upon the seas, And established it upon the floods. Who shall ascend into the hill of Jehovah? And who shall stand in his holy place? He that hath clean hands, and a pure heart; Who hath not lifted up his soul unto falsehood, And hath not sworn deceitfully. He shall receive a blessing from Jehovah, And righteousness from the God of his salvation (Ps 24:1-5).
Dene Ward