The Case of the Missing Plug pt 2
My first post on ‘The Case of the Missing Plug’ told of how I had thought the plug for our new laundry trough was missing and how I missed out on the benefits of using this plug for over seven years because of three attitudes: Assumption, Ignorance and a ‘Make Do’ attitude.
In this post, I will discuss how these same three things could be at work in us to rob us of the benefits and privileges of being children of the Kingdom of God.
ASSUMPTION
This takes a few forms.
- We assume we DO what God says because we think we KNOW what God says. In this case, we become ‘hearers’ and not ‘doers’ and are quickly de-sensitised to God’s instructions - all the while believing we are doing what God says.
- We assume that because we’ve been Christians for a while and haven’t seen anything in the Bible to be of practical help in a given situation that the help we need isn’t there. In this case, we turn to others for our help and usually end up following ungodly, worldly wisdom that won’t give us the results God really has for us.
For instance, there’s a wealth of wisdom in the Bible for families, marriage and parenting, but I have been amazed to discover most Christians assume that they know what the Bible says on the subject. Then because they think they know it, they assume that they are obeying it. If that were true, then the divorce statistics in the Church wouldn’t be just about on a par with the divorce statistics outside the Church and families wouldn’t be struggling with wilful and disobedient children.
I had one Pastor’s wife sum it up this way. “Oh yeah. Husbands love. Wives submit. Children obey. Yeah, I know that’. There was a flippancy in the way she said it, and a resigned tone in her voice that suggested to me a disinterest in the subject. That’s from a Pastor’s wife! Someone who people assume is able to help families in distress. The whole conversation betrayed the fact that she didn’t think there was too much more that the Bible had to say on the subject.
Mind you, if we all obeyed just those three instructions, the Church would truly stand out as a ‘city on a hill’ and the world would look to us for the help it needs.
IGNORANCE
When we don’t know that we don’t know something, we aren’t going to try to find out what we don’t know because we don’t think there is anything to find out.
(You’d better re-read that!)
In Hosea 4:6, God warns that ‘My people are destroyed for lack of knowledge ….’. He doesn’t excuse the people’s ignorance - and the people suffered because of their ignorance.
Until you learned of God’s salvation through Christ, you were ignorant of it and didn’t have it. There came a time you heard and were no longer ignorant. You then had the opportunity to receive or reject that truth.
There is wisdom for every situation in life and there are all sorts of benefits, challenges and privileges that God has for His people. If we don’t know, or don’t believe, that God’s Word contains such treasures, we won’t go looking for them - and our lives will be the poorer for it.
A ‘MAKE DO’ ATTITUDE
When our our ignorance deprives us and our assumptions lead us to wrong conclusions, we settle for less than we were meant to.
I had decided to ‘make do’ with no plug. I wasn’t even motivated enough to go and buy one - the bucket worked well enough even though it wasn’t ideal.
Most of us make do in our marriages. God wants our marriages to reflect the relationship between Christ and His Bride. However, most of us either assume that’s impossible, assume our marriage already does, or are ignorant of God’s vision for our marriages so never aspire to it in the first place. Instead, we ‘make do’ with something far less satisfying - and don’t even know what we are missing.
The same ‘make do’ attitude is expressed in much of our parenting. Most western Christians I have spoken with assume that because they are Christians, and have the capacity to bring children to birth that they will automatically be good parents. Many of them assume that they already know what the Bible has to say about parenting, yet the reality is that they are ignorant of the wealth of wisdom in God’s Word that would equip them to become Godly parents raising Godly children. They ‘make do’, believing that terrible two tantrums, rebellious teenagers and the like are ‘normal’ and they miss the wonderful blessing that God really has for their family. They console themselves in the knowledge that most of the rest of the Christian families they know are suffering similar problems, and write off families whose children are compliant, obedient and Godly as being ‘extreme’ or ‘lucky’.
THE SOLUTION
All the wisdom and understanding we need for this life is in God’s Word. 2 Peter 1:3 tells us that God has given us everything we need to live a Godly life.
The Bible is very practical. As we read God’s Word, we ‘brush against’ His truth. If we are inquisitive enough, this will lead us to further enquiry, which will lead us to ‘discovery’, which ultimately leads us to blessing and the working out of God’s Word in our lives.
I encourage you to take the time to search out the treasures in God’s Word. Proverbs 2:4,5 says, ‘If you seek her (wisdom, understanding and God’s words) as silver and search for her as for hidden treasures, then you will understand the fear of the Lord and find the knowledge of God’.