Allowable, but not God's best

As part of our Home Team, we read the passage Matthew 19 where Jesus was confronted by the Pharisees who tried to bait Jesus with a controversial subject at the time: divorce. The Pharisees were hoping Jesus would cater to one side and then the people who ascribed to the other side of the debate would get angry.

But Jesus threw them a curveball. He didn't pander to either side. He went back to the original intent of marriage: one man, one woman, together as one to glorify God. He then explained that while divorce was allowed by Moses, it was because people had "hard hearts". It was allowable, but not the best God had intended.

Then we looked at 1 Corinthians 6:12 where Paul addresses the Corinthians who were pulling the line, "Well, I'm saved so I can do anything and get forgiven, right?" Paul very strongly responds by saying, "'Everything is permissable for me' but not everything is beneficial."

Our conversation led to what are things that our culture, even our Christian culture says is allowable, but is not God's best for us.

My example was that I have to be gone for four days to go to this recruiting fair in Seattle. According to my district's policy, I'm not able to take more than 3 discretionary days off in a row. This was a problem. I had several people tell me, "Oh, just call in and say you're sick the last day." or "Say it was something else, nobody will know."

But the truth was I would know. I would know lying was wrong. It wasn't ethical even if "everyone does it". No matter how much I would rationalize (or as Pastor Greg says tell myself "rational lies") or blame my district's policy, I would know and everyone else I talked to about the situation would know that I had lied. What kind of blessing from God would I forfeit if I deliberately said, "You know God, you said you'd take care of me, but I think I know better so I'm just going to fake being sick so I don't lose pay,"?

I didn't lie. I put in for four days. I talked with my administrator quite honestly. And guess what? God took care of me. My administrator cleared me for the fourth day. I won't lose pay. God honored my faithfulness and the fact that I took a stand and said, "Yes," to integrity even though Christian friends and colleagues had said, "No biggie."

So my question is what have you accepted as "allowable" that is not really God's best?

• Is it fudging on your taxes because God knows you really can't afford to pay it all?
• Is it not being honest with that friend because maybe he or she won't like me if I speak the truth?
• Is it laughing at that off-color, racist or sexist joke just to fit in? Is it making the joke just to feel accepted?

In this morning's service, this verse was read and it really resonated with me. It's from Psalm 25:21:

May integrity and uprightness protect me, because my hope is in You.

Is your hope really in Him and His ability to take care of you?