Day 27: Hands off, hands up, hands down

From Oswald Chambers’ My Utmost for His Highest, November 15:

One of the hardest lessons to learn comes from our stubborn refusal to refrain from interfering in other people’s lives. It takes a long time to realize the danger of being an amateur providence, that is, interfering with God’s plan for others. You see someone suffering and say, "He will not suffer, and I will make sure that he doesn’t." You put your hand right in front of God’s permissive will to stop it, and then God says, "What is that to you?" Is there stagnation in your spiritual life? Don’t allow it to continue, but get into God’s presence and find out the reason for it. You will possibly find it is because you have been interfering in the life of another— proposing things you had no right to propose, or advising when you had no right to advise. When you do have to give advice to another person, God will advise through you with the direct understanding of His Spirit. Your part is to maintain the right relationship with God so that His discernment can come through you continually for the purpose of blessing someone else.

Most of us live only within the level of consciousness— consciously serving and consciously devoted to God. This shows immaturity and the fact that we’re not yet living the real Christian life. Maturity is produced in the life of a child of God on the unconscious level, until we become so totally surrendered to God that we are not even aware of being used by Him. When we are consciously aware of being used as broken bread and poured-out wine, we have yet another level to reach— a level where all awareness of ourselves and of what God is doing through us is completely eliminated. A saint is never consciously a saint— a saint is consciously dependent on God.
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Hands off!
It’s what our teachers told us in kindergarten: Keep your hands to yourself! As adults, some of us still haven’t learned the lesson. Sometimes I think I’m so right…about other peoples’ lives, other peoples’ decisions, other peoples’ circumstances. And rather than actually helping them, my advice becomes a barging in, “pimp their lives” make-over as if I really knew better—as if I were God.

Hands up!
Chambers reminds me that the most important thing I can do for another person is that I “maintain a right relationship with God.”

When challenged by the Pharisees, "Teacher, which is the greatest commandment in the Law?" Jesus said,
“’Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.’ This is the first and greatest commandment. And the second is like it: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’  All the Law and the Prophets hang on these two commandments.” [Matthew 22:36-40]

God reigns, hands down.

Posted by email from 40 Day Fast (posterous)