Saturday, December 19, 2009

Stiff-necked vs. Yielding

2 Chronicles 30:8 "Now do not be stiff-necked, as your fathers were, but yield yourselves to the LORD; and enter His sanctuary, which He has sanctified forever, and serve the LORD your God, that the fierceness of His wrath may turn away from you.

I was struck by this verse in my daily Quiet Time this week. I suppose one reason this verse jumped out at me is because my neck has been quite stiff over the past three months, more often than not.

I am intrigued by the contrast between the words stiff-necked and yield. If one is not yielding, then they are stiff-necked according to this verse. It got me to thinking. In a very literal sense, my neck has been stiff. But I believe that God has been showing me that I have been stiffed-necked and unyielding in other areas.

For years, I have wanted only a particular physical therapist to work with me. I did not want to be passed back and forth between two. Three weeks ago I lost my physical therapist. He took another job. This transition would have been much easier for me had I not been stiff-necked about which therapist I saw. It's not always good to put all your eggs in one basket as the old saying goes.

How often are there areas in our lives in which we don't want to see change. We fight against it and do all we can to keep things as they are. Things happen that are out of our control and we go to pieces over it because it's not what we wanted.

We are creatures of habit and routine and we don't want unexpected or unwanted change to mess our lives up. We often place our contentment in spouses, our children, other people, possessions, health, our church/religion, recreation or any number of other things. When any of these things are taken from us or they are changed in some unwelcome way, it throws us for a loop.

I've had to come to terms with the fact that God is in control and He doesn't always order things in the way in which I think He should order them. But He does all things with perfect wisdom and a view to my spiritual good. God does not change. He is always constant. He is always there. He is always good. He is always in control.

We should not be stiff-necked, unyielding to His providence in our lives. It would make our lives easier to deal with if we could be yielding and pliable in the hands of the Master, rather than stiff and unyielding. Being stiff-necked and being content don't go together. But yielding to the Lord's providence in our lives shows that one is content in Him.

No comments: