The Missing Link

I would like to.  I don’t think this is a good idea. I feel angry. Nobody loves me. Am I accepted by others? What gives me pleasure? It’s all about me; how I feel and what I want. Is this not how it should be? After all, I am the centre of my own life. I have all the controls to steer myself in the way I want to go. Yes, I can have compassion for people. I can have relationships and interaction with others. I have sympathy and concerns, but I am in the driving seat. It’s my life and I can do whatever I want, within the law of course. This is all built into my character which has been moulded through life according to my circumstances. This is the way I am.

But is there not a flaw in my makeup? This has been mankind’s legacy for centuries. Even from the beginning our sub-conscious mind has been moulded by what we want, ever since Eve surrendered to her temptation in the Garden. She was tricked into reaching for something beyond herself, even though God warned her she would die. She fell for the lie of the devil and ate the forbidden fruit.

This was the sowing of the seed of self-centredness, which was our separation from God. Now it was no longer God’s way but my way. It was the way of the selfish heart. This is where we learned hunger to satisfy the soul. But God says, “No. There is a better way.”

Our relationship with God was not meant to be through the soul, or the heart. We read, ‘the heart is deceitful above all things’ (Jeremiah 17:9); but by the Spirit. The Spirit is the missing link between man and God. For Christians that link has now been restored. We have direct access to the throne of God Himself, through the Spirit. Everything comes under the discernment of the Spirit. This is God’s way. This was why Christ died. It was so that we may be dead to self and our own selfish ways, and alive to God in Christ Jesus (Romans 6:11).

We can still say, “I want, I hunger” or “I’m angry.” But now there’s a mitigating factor. We can submit our `soulish` emotions to the throne of grace, where God is seated, listening to our every cry. The trouble is we don’t always submit our desires and fears to the Father. We can override the promptings of the Spirit and surrender to the desires of the heart. But God’s ways are always best, best for us and for others. They are infinitely better than our ways, which are so often based on fragile emotions or selfish tendencies.

‘We have not received the spirit of the world, but the Spirit who is from God, that we may understand what God has freely given us’ (1 Corinthians 2:12). This is God’s way, the best way and the only way to peace and eternal contentment.