Does God not want us to have independent qualities?
To keep the Sabbath will take all the independent thinking you can muster. Customs, traditions, pressure from friends, well-intentioned dissuasion from family and even perhaps outright hostility from those you were closest to, will test how determined you are to follow God. It will mean being totally independent from the world, but by contrast totally dependent on God. The Bible is full of paradoxes!
What God does not look for is someone who tries to please everyone.
This is the result of listening to the last person we were talking to and being swayed with every wind; or compromising what we believe for the sake of peace; being a ‘yes person’ even when you know it is wrong; trusting the expert’s advice against the Word of God - the vicar, for instance, or the theologian or family; or serving God when it is easy. |
