Gratefully Living Like a Christian

“Trust [rely on and have confidence] in the Lord and do good; dwell in the land and feed [securely] on His faithfulness. Delight yourself in the Lord, and He will give you the desires and petitions of your heart. Commit your way to the Lord; trust in Him also and He will do it. He will make your righteousness [your pursuit of right standing with God] like the light, and your judgment like [the shining of] the noonday [sun].” (Psalm 37: 3-6, AMP)

Does a bird reject its wings, wishing to take flight in any other way than the way it was designed to? Does a fish attempt to live underwater without its gills, breathing in some other way that allows it to work against God’s created intention for it? Does an elephant rebel against its being an elephant, trying to be a house cat? 

No. All creation lives in absolute submission to the Lord. In Matthew 6, we know Jesus talks about how the sparrow doesn’t fret over where it will be fed. The lilies don’t struggle against blooming. They don’t worry over being a thistle or a rose. All creation embraces their place in God’s creation. 

Elizabeth Elliot writes in her book, Let Me Be a Woman, “By being a jellyfish the jellyfish glorifies its Creator, for by being a jellyfish it fulfills its Creator’s command.”

So why not people? In general, people are ungrateful in their role in creation. There are some that say they “identify” as something else. There are others that are gripped by their desire to do, have, be something else. There are still others who worry like it’s their full-time job. 

Christians are no exception. In fact, the central struggle of the man and woman of Christ is that we wrestle against our flesh. Intellectually, we know we are supposed to live in surrender to Him, relying on and trusting in Him over all things. We are supposed to embrace God’s design for family, church, community, etc. But our sinful nature rebels. 

In all reality, the Christian life is full of God’s peace. We should trust in the Lord, hanging all our worries on His sovereignty– whatever He wills will come to pass. We should do good to others and serve the Lord graciously. We should dwell in the land and quite literally feed on God’s faithfulness, allowing Him to fill our needs and live in the security that He loves us and provides. 

We should delight in Him, committing our lives to Him. Is there anything He can’t do, or hasn’t done for us? 

We cast our cares on Him and He hears us– perhaps not in the ways we want, but always in a better way than we could have planned ourselves. He doesn’t fail. He is steadfast, mighty, and faithful to us.

So how is it that our dissatisfaction could be so great; that we could grumble, complain, or worry that the Lord has somehow designed or intended wrong? How could we struggle against God’s will, like our ideas are somehow higher than His? 

Friend, you cannot delight in the Lord and live at odds with His plan. You cannot trust in Him while wringing your hands in anxiety that things could somehow go wrong. Embracing what God intended for us is both the thing we struggle against and the thing that will give us most peace. 

Just like the jellyfish, when we embrace the role, gender, purpose, and life God has designed for us, we not only fall in love with God’s design, but we glorify Him as the Creator that doesn’t create mistakes.

If we are Christians, then let’s be Christians; living in the way that God intended we live. If we are children of the most high God, then let’s not just say we are. Let’s be it, and be it to the fullest. 

The psalm that today’s verse comes from says “don’t fret” over and over again. And it’s true. We should not fret. We should feed on the faithfulness of the Lord, as it never runs out and it’s new every morning. Let’s not just say we delight in the Lord, putting on a surface-level peace that outwardly boasts in Christ and then struggles behind closed doors.

Let’s trust, and dwell, and feed, and commit. When we do that, we will glorify God to the utmost of our ability, and by living in that way, God increases our righteousness and refines us. He gives us His light where we can discern and glorify Him all the more. His Holy Spirit gives us that ability– to delight in Him and worship Him with our very lives. 

And while we endeavor to walk in that delight, knowing that we could never be perfect in it, God is delighted in us because we are living in the way He intended for us to live.