Ignoring a fever

Some habits I do not want to break. One habit I treasure is reading Oswald Chamber's daily devotional My Utmost for His Highest.
What an incredible source of light and comfort this reading has been. Today was no exception.

The reading is entitled "The Inevitable Penalty". This is a typical Chambers title. He loved words like "Inevitable". He leaves no doubt that this will happen. More than 30 years testing these words of Chambers which he crafted from careful Bible study and life observation have convinced me to take his carefully chosen words seriously.

Chambers quotes Jesus' words in Matt. 5:26 "Assuredly, I say to you, you will by no means get out of there till you have paid the last penny." Jesus is warning his followers that unresolved conflicts are not ever allowed in the Kingdom of God's love. In other words, we must never think a conflict is going away on its own. We must see the conflict as serious and unavoidable until it is resolved.

Chambers goes on to say that this human tendency to think conflicts are no big deal is rooted in "the disposition of your right to yourself." I am used to Chamber's language but I still need to look for a more modern way to say what he is saying. This "disposition of your right to yourself" means to me "the illusion of human autonomy." Humans are not autonomous. We are derivative and dependent. We must begin at zero before God. Zero before God is the 98.6 temperature of spiritual normality and health in the kingdom of God. "Blessed are the poor in spirit for theirs is the kingdom of heaven" This is 98.6 for spirituality.

To ignore a conflict and refuse to actively seek its end is to ignore a fever that will kill you and infect others. God will seek out the cause of the fever--human autonomy--and bring it to zero. The world is sick to death with this fever and God will bring it to an end and he begins in his own.

Right now there are millions of Christians with high and low grade conflict fevers. God's cure is "inevitable". He will bring the fever down. Ignoring the fever is a waste of the precious little time we have for glorifying God here and now. Go to zero before God and seek peace with all.