Page 26 The Lord leads His children as a Shepherd, a King, and a Father. As a Shepherd, He leads us into green pastures and out of danger. But He allows great freedom of choice within the green pastures. As a King, He gives His people spiritual principles by which to govern their lives. But these principles are very broad and allow for much freedom of choice. As a Father, He provides lots of instruction to His children when they are young. But then He expects them to mature. And part of maturity is the ability to make decisions that are in harmony with God’s mind and heart. The Crucial Need for Understanding Psalm 32:8-9 underscores the point I’m trying to make. The Lord says through the Psalmist, I will instruct you and teach you in the way you should go; I will guide you with my eye. Do not be like the horse or like the mule, which have no understanding, which must be harnessed with bit and bridle, else they will not come near you. (NKJV) The horse and the mule have no understanding. They have no discernment. They have no judgment. Because they have no understanding, they must be pulled with the bit and the bridal, left and right, and told where to go in every circumstance. The Lord tells
It is possible to endure in this life but to do it in a self-righteous, resentful survivor-spirit that is self-pitying and angry at those who do not shoulder the burden with you while being inwardly proud of your grit. Instead of the fruit of the Spirit, there is bitterness and joylessness. In truth, God may not consider this kind of life to be one of endurance, and certainly not one of “great endurance” (2 Cor. 6:4). Paul endured with the inner graces of the Spirit. Sweet endurance is what the Scripture here enjoins… Sweet in-Spirited endurance testifies to the reality of Christ and that He is worth our trust and service.
Kent Hughes