Infidelity: Is it a way of life? Even my life?

Do you believe in coincidences?  I do, sort of – divine coincidences that is, the kind only the Spirit of God could and does orchestrate.  Yesterday I wrote about infidelity in marriage and the way it could look on the outside and the reality of what it is on the inside.

Then today, I read from The Best of Andrew Murray on Prayer, as is my regular routine and came upon the following line: Everything in life is to bear the signature of the name of Jesus. Wow, what a thought!  And what a challenge…does everything in my life bear the signature of the name of Jesus?  What I eat, what I wear, what I do, where I go, what I read?  And well you get the idea.  And if it doesn’t, what then?

After that time of challenge and prayer, I went on to read James 4 (our church is working through James this summer and we have been encouraged to read the book through each week and in a different version.)  So, I am using The Message this week.  Here’s is what chapter four sounds like in verses four and five:

You’re cheating on God. If all you want is your own way, flirting with the world every chance you get, you end up enemies with God and His way.  And do you suppose God doesn’t care? The proverb has it that  “he’s a fiercely jealous lover.”

Is this the theme for the week? I wondered, infidelity?  And when I choose, without consulting, or even ignoring God’s mind, am I actually cheating on God?  I think of the woman I read about yesterday and her record of her response to her husband’s infidelity.  My husband and I spent four years at our church as grief counselors, running a small group for those who had experienced loss, and the language Wendy used as she described her feelings and choices sounded just like the language of those who had lost a loved one to death.

Desolation! Absolute abandonment! Hopelessness!  Emptiness and purposelessness! NO motivation to take even the next step! An inability to make choices!

Certainly God goes on, whether we are faithful or not, but I could not help wondering how our choices make Him feel.  Certainly we have feelings because He did, so what we do does cause Him to feel.  Love always results in emotion!

And today I am driven to examine my record of fidelity – not over my lifetime.  I could not handle that, and I am grateful for His forgiveness. But what about the choices I have made today?  When I think about the vivid images that come to mind when I read the word “flirting,” I am forced to consider whether that is what we do when we watch a TV show or movie, knowing we probably wouldn’t if Jesus were sharing the couch with us.  Would we tell or listen to that joke if we could see Him in the circle? 

You can fill in the areas of your life where you are most vulnerable to temptation, and we can both pray that we will be so sensitive to the leading of the Spirit that we will notice when the real temptation is to flirt with the world and then perhaps cheat on God.