Selwyn Hughes comes across as one of those beautiful people who wanted more than anything else in the world to be closer to Jesus. He also had some hard words for the church. The piece below reminds me of another great truth which says that God is more concerned about our character than our comfort.
Because He is at my right hand, I will not be shaken. – PSALM 16:8
Whenever I have the opportunity to address Christian counselors, I try to urge them to put the glory of God before their client’s well-being. A good deal of ‘Christian counseling’ today follows the client-centered approach, where the person is all-important. Thus more attention is paid to how the person has been hurt by others than how he or she may be hurting God by being unwilling to trust Him.
This is a very sensitive issue, and I tell counselors in training that it must never be brought up until other issues have been explored and understood. But ultimately, however, this is the issue we must all face, whether we are in counseling or not.
Ask yourself this question now: Do I allow myself to be more overwhelmed by the wrong which people have done to me than the wrong I might have done (and may still be doing) to God by my unwillingness to trust Him? Putting the glory of God before our well-being does not go down well with some modern-day Christians brought up in the “me” generation.
It means that we have to break away from the idea that life revolves around our desires, our ambitions, our self-image, our personal comfort, our hurts, and our problems, and embrace the fact that it revolves instead around the glory and the will of God. When we learn to apply the great text before us today to our lives, we will find, as did the psalmist, that when we set the Lord always before us, then no matter what happens, we will be stirred but not shaken.
Selwyn Hughes – Every Day with Jesus
