Silas
Beloved of All
Your words about your mother having gone home to be with Jesus are received with both sorrow for your loss and thankfulness for the hope we have in Him. Scripture teaches that Jesus became man so that He could die, and as God death could not hold Him. He tasted death for us, He bore our sins and died in our place, so that to be absent from the body is to be present with the Lord. For the believer death has lost its sting, because the sting of death was sin and Christ has taken it away. To be faithful unto death is to receive the crown of life, and that promise is for all who are in Christ. The grief is real, yet we do not grieve without hope, because He has abolished spiritual death and brought us spiritual life, and nothing can separate us from God when we are made alive in Him.
You also ask about a sense of being watched, and whether there is pressure to distance yourself from what looks like integrity and from your mother's competence. God never works by pressure tactics. What we do for Him, or give to Him, He wants to be willing and from the heart, not out of necessity or compulsion. Even when someone could have claimed a benefit for himself, the apostolic example is to seek permission and to want any good to come willingly, not as if forced.
There are times when people feel squeezed into a narrow place, pressed and anguished by the expectations of others. That kind of pressure does not come from God. It is painful when others want to lie or cheat or fudge what is true, and it troubles a conscience that wants to do what is right. Scripture says God is fair and just and shows concern for the vulnerable, and He wants His people to be fair and just as well. He sets before each person the way of life and the way of death, and He calls us to choose life by living according to the Spirit. To be minded after the flesh brings death, but to be minded after the Spirit brings life and peace.
When a crowd or a system presses for a wrong decision, it is always hard, but it is sad when a person yields to that pressure rather than standing for what is right and true. You do not need to abandon integrity or hide competence that God has given in order to satisfy such pressure. Integrity is not something to distance yourself from. A life that seeks to be reconciled to God, that denies self centered ways and takes up the cross to follow Him, will be different from the world, and that difference is good. You have no true fellowship with ways that ask you to be dishonest or unjust.
The grace of God is offered to you today, and Scripture urges us not to turn it aside. Today is the day of salvation, and the call of the Spirit is to be reconciled to God through Jesus. Rest in the assurance that your mother, if she was in Christ, is now present with Him, and entrust your own way to Him as well. Walk in what is true and just, not because you are forced to, but because you willingly purpose in your heart to please Him, trusting that He sees, He cares for the underdog, and He will honor a willing and honest heart.
You also ask about a sense of being watched, and whether there is pressure to distance yourself from what looks like integrity and from your mother's competence. God never works by pressure tactics. What we do for Him, or give to Him, He wants to be willing and from the heart, not out of necessity or compulsion. Even when someone could have claimed a benefit for himself, the apostolic example is to seek permission and to want any good to come willingly, not as if forced.
There are times when people feel squeezed into a narrow place, pressed and anguished by the expectations of others. That kind of pressure does not come from God. It is painful when others want to lie or cheat or fudge what is true, and it troubles a conscience that wants to do what is right. Scripture says God is fair and just and shows concern for the vulnerable, and He wants His people to be fair and just as well. He sets before each person the way of life and the way of death, and He calls us to choose life by living according to the Spirit. To be minded after the flesh brings death, but to be minded after the Spirit brings life and peace.
When a crowd or a system presses for a wrong decision, it is always hard, but it is sad when a person yields to that pressure rather than standing for what is right and true. You do not need to abandon integrity or hide competence that God has given in order to satisfy such pressure. Integrity is not something to distance yourself from. A life that seeks to be reconciled to God, that denies self centered ways and takes up the cross to follow Him, will be different from the world, and that difference is good. You have no true fellowship with ways that ask you to be dishonest or unjust.
The grace of God is offered to you today, and Scripture urges us not to turn it aside. Today is the day of salvation, and the call of the Spirit is to be reconciled to God through Jesus. Rest in the assurance that your mother, if she was in Christ, is now present with Him, and entrust your own way to Him as well. Walk in what is true and just, not because you are forced to, but because you willingly purpose in your heart to please Him, trusting that He sees, He cares for the underdog, and He will honor a willing and honest heart.
