"Squeezed To Obey" By Ron Hutchcraft
"Squeezed To Obey"
By Ron Hutchcraft
Acts 8:1
Parenting is not a precise science. It's not the kind of thing where you mix certain ingredients and you count on getting the same reaction. Parenting, well, is largely experimental. But after a while, you learn more creative ways to get your children to do what is right. You can yell, you can threaten, you can try to overpower - or you can work through a method I call "the squeeze."
See, "the squeeze" sort of steers a child to the right choice. It's also known as the "lousy choice" approach. See, you give your child two choices, but one is so bad that he or she will choose the other one. In our family it might have sounded something like this: "OK, look, you can do the yard work with my help before noon or by yourself sometime before Friday." They would do it then. Or, "Either you set your own study hours, or I'll set them. Youchoose." It's amazing how the "squeeze" usually leads a child to being where he really ought to be.
Our word for today from the Word of God begins with Jesus' parting instructions to His followers in Acts 1:8. "You will be My witnesses in Jerusalem, in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth." Now, guess which part of that they liked best? Right. Jerusalem. That was home. That was the familiar.
I'm not sure they would have ever gotten beyond Jerusalem unless they were pushed, unless they were squeezed to go. Now, that was Acts 1:8. Acts 8:1 tells how it happened. "A great persecution broke out against the church at Jerusalem, and all except the apostles were scattered through Judea and Samaria ... Those who had been scattered preached the Word wherever they went." Well, the Gospel exploded across the region and the world because God squeezed them out of their comfort zone. God allowed their comfort zone to suddenly become very uncomfortable.
It's asif the Heavenly Father said, "OK, you've got two choices. You can stay where you are in a painful situation, or you can go where I've been trying to send you and take those risks." Actually, we're just like those first Christians. We get settled into one way of doing things. We hunker down in our current situation, not necessarily because it's the best but because it's comfortable. It's familiar. And then God starts squeezing.
Now, you may be wondering why God has turned up the heat on you recently, why He's increased the pressure. It may be because He wants you to make a change. You can stubbornly choose the pain of staying put if you want to - or you can obediently choose what He knows is best for you.
It may look risky, but it's where He wants you to go. And that's why the squeeze is on. If you're feeling the pressure, it isn't so much that God is angry with you. He's just got something better for you. And He wants you to step up and choose that something better.But if you're like my children - or the First Century Jerusalem Christians - you have to be squeezed to obey.
***
Copyright (c) 2003, Ron Hutchcraft. Reprinted with permission. "A Word With You" is a radio outreach of Ron Hutchcraft Ministries, Inc.
By Ron Hutchcraft
Acts 8:1
Parenting is not a precise science. It's not the kind of thing where you mix certain ingredients and you count on getting the same reaction. Parenting, well, is largely experimental. But after a while, you learn more creative ways to get your children to do what is right. You can yell, you can threaten, you can try to overpower - or you can work through a method I call "the squeeze."
See, "the squeeze" sort of steers a child to the right choice. It's also known as the "lousy choice" approach. See, you give your child two choices, but one is so bad that he or she will choose the other one. In our family it might have sounded something like this: "OK, look, you can do the yard work with my help before noon or by yourself sometime before Friday." They would do it then. Or, "Either you set your own study hours, or I'll set them. Youchoose." It's amazing how the "squeeze" usually leads a child to being where he really ought to be.
Our word for today from the Word of God begins with Jesus' parting instructions to His followers in Acts 1:8. "You will be My witnesses in Jerusalem, in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth." Now, guess which part of that they liked best? Right. Jerusalem. That was home. That was the familiar.
I'm not sure they would have ever gotten beyond Jerusalem unless they were pushed, unless they were squeezed to go. Now, that was Acts 1:8. Acts 8:1 tells how it happened. "A great persecution broke out against the church at Jerusalem, and all except the apostles were scattered through Judea and Samaria ... Those who had been scattered preached the Word wherever they went." Well, the Gospel exploded across the region and the world because God squeezed them out of their comfort zone. God allowed their comfort zone to suddenly become very uncomfortable.
It's asif the Heavenly Father said, "OK, you've got two choices. You can stay where you are in a painful situation, or you can go where I've been trying to send you and take those risks." Actually, we're just like those first Christians. We get settled into one way of doing things. We hunker down in our current situation, not necessarily because it's the best but because it's comfortable. It's familiar. And then God starts squeezing.
Now, you may be wondering why God has turned up the heat on you recently, why He's increased the pressure. It may be because He wants you to make a change. You can stubbornly choose the pain of staying put if you want to - or you can obediently choose what He knows is best for you.
It may look risky, but it's where He wants you to go. And that's why the squeeze is on. If you're feeling the pressure, it isn't so much that God is angry with you. He's just got something better for you. And He wants you to step up and choose that something better.But if you're like my children - or the First Century Jerusalem Christians - you have to be squeezed to obey.
***
Copyright (c) 2003, Ron Hutchcraft. Reprinted with permission. "A Word With You" is a radio outreach of Ron Hutchcraft Ministries, Inc.