Topic: Our Journey with Christ: Point 8- Strife
Good evening, ladies, and gentlemen! How are you doing? Hope you had an awesome day! Last year, we started the series- Our Journey with Christ- however, we were unable to complete the series. This year, we are hoping to complete this series. We hope to be more consistent and publish more thought-provoking statements by the Holy Spirit, by God’s Grace.
Let us recap what the other point we explored last year! We started this journey to understand our journey with Christ much better. With the help of the Holy Spirit, we have learnt about the Call and Commission (from God), Obedience to the Call, Revelations, Obstacles along our journey, Rewards and Calling on to Christ throughout the journey. In today’s post, the Holy Spirit will teach us about Strife! Yes, as we go along our journey, we would experience some strife.
[It is our hope that you would pay attention this journey as you go through the year! This year is the Year of God’s Will; it is important to understand the dynamics of our relationship with Christ- and our journey with Him!]
Are you ready for today’s post? Let us get right into it!
According to the Oxford Dictionary, the word “strife” means being angry or having a bitter disagreement over fundamental issues. As Christians, we will all experience some strife. This is very important to take note of because strife is a conflict we experience with/ against people who are close to us, i.e., family, close friends, etc. These times are critical because we are sometimes driven by emotion when this happens; it must not be so! During these times we must be in tune with God and fall back to Him for Help. It is easy to confuse the person and the spirit behind the assignment! These are two different entities and must not be confused with each other!
One may ask, “Why does God allow for strife?” Well, the answer is quite simple. We go through this because God wants to ensure that we have zero allegiance to anyone and/ or anything else: apart from Him. We go through this because God wants to teach us to depend solely on Him and on no one else! Now, let us go to the Bible to see an example of this!
In Genesis 13 from verses 10 to 15, we see the strife between Lot and Abram and their herdsmen as well. This was because of the increase in each party’s wealth. The land could not support them. In verses 8 and 9, we see that Abram went to Lot and asked that the strife between them come to an end. Abram suggested that they separate- “If you take the left, then I will go to the right; or, if you go to the right, then I will go to the left.”
From this story of strife, God teaches us many things. A few of them include.
1. Act based on God’s direction and not emotion. If Abram was not a diligent servant of God, he would have used his emotions to handle the situation. The strife could have ended up in a war between the two families. Instead, Abram offered a peaceful solution.