That's Messed Up! Devotions From Time Of GraceSample

God-given tension 

I rewrote my sermon six times. I was attempting to write a sermon about Deborah from Judges chapter 4, and the tension was tearing me apart. The tension between Deborah’s leadership as a woman and her own desire to see men like Barak step up and lead (Judges 5:2).

After six tries and a few mentally agonizing days, however, a light bulb went on. The tension that I felt was . . . God-given. God came up with all the verses that made me feel so tense. God gifted Deborah with her passion and personality. AND God inspired those tough-to-apply verses about men in ministry. And, if there’s one thing I’ve come to know about God, it’s that He can be trusted in everything. “Trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding” (Proverbs 3:5).

Maybe you’ve felt a similar tension with some teaching in the Bible. The tension between celebrating all Christians, no matter what their church or denomination, versus treasuring and defending every teaching in God’s Word. The tension between honoring all those in authority versus calling out acts of injustice committed by the authorities. The tension between leveraging all of your gifts versus submitting to those whom God has called to lead you (even if they don’t seem that gifted!). 

In that tension, remember that all those Bible passages have a common source—God. The God who sent His only Son to remind us all that He is worthy of our trust.