for the gray areas

AJ and I have helped for the past several years in serving the youth at our church on Wednesday nights. Even though the lessons are predominantly focused towards youth, there have been lots of times that I have walked away feeling convicted or in awe of what I just learned. The last lesson I heard had a bit of both. And it was too good not to share with you all.

The Bible provides us everything we need know in order to live a godly life. Some of those things are very black and white (such as the 10 commandments) but others seem to fall in a gray area (such as music, tv, etc.) God's Word is sufficient in all areas and there are answers to what we may think are "gray" and not so black and white.

These questions should be applied to everything we do in life: what shows we watch, the music we listen to, our language, how we spend our time, the relationships we are in, what we expose our kids to...

The list could go on and on, but those were the main ones that came to mind when I was being convicted of studying these questions. :)

Question 1: Does it help me or hinder me in living a surrendered life to the Holy Spirit?

Galatians 5:16-17 "So I say, live by the Spirit, and you will not gratify the desires of the sinful nature. For the sinful nature desires what is contrary to the Spirit, and the Spirit what is contrary to the sinful nature. They are in conflict with each other, so that you do not do what you want."

Question 2: Does it bring glory to God?

1 Corinthians 10:31 "So whether you eat or drink or whatever you do, do it all for the glory of God."

Question 3: Does it help me or hinder me in avoiding the appearance of evil?

Ephesians 5:11 "Have nothing to do with the fruitless deeds of darkness, but rather expose them."

2 Timothy 2:22 "Flee the evil desires of youth, and pursue righteousness, faith, love and peace, along with those who call on the name of the Lord out of a pure heart."

Question 4: Does this cause me to become a stumbling block for another believer?

1 Corinthians 8:9-13 "Be careful, however, that the exercise of your freedom does not become a stumbling block to the weak. For if anyone with a weak conscience sees you who have this knowledge eating in an idol's temple, won't he be emboldened to eat what has been sacrificed to idols? So this weak brother, for whom Christ died, is destroyed by your knowledge. When you sin against your brothers in this way and wound their weak conscience, you sin against Christ. Therefore, if what I eat causes my brother to fall into sin, I will never eat meat again, so that I will not cause him to fall."

I hope this is an encouragement to you. Trust me when I say that there are things in my life that need to change because they are not "gray" anymore. It is clear what needs to happen and I ultimately have to decide who I want to serve. Myself. Or God.