Stop nagging me!

As a young adult, I have lots of friends who get advice from their parents.
• Sometimes the parents live nearby. Other times they are quite a distance away.
• Sometimes the advice is sought by the grown children, who have come to appreciate their parents’ wisdom as they’ve grown older. And other times the advice is offered at the parents’ initiative.
• Some of the parents will give the advice on one well-stated occasion, and let it rest at that. These are the wise ones. Others will nag and nag and nag repeatedly. Usually this puts the grown child on the defensive, and makes them more resistant to the advice.

In the book of Acts we find an interesting scenario. Paul and his Christian friends were on the home stretch of his 3rd missionary journey, which took place from 54 to 58 A.D. As he was returning to Jerusalem, he received repeated warnings from the Holy Spirit of the danger that lay ahead, with the most pointed one coming from the prophet Agabus in Acts 21:10-11. This provokes an emotionally intense exchange (in verses 12-13) between Paul and his followers:

“When we heard this, we and the people there pleaded with Paul not to go up to Jerusalem. Then Paul answered, ‘Why are you weeping and breaking my heart? I am ready not only to be bound, but also to die in Jerusalem for the name of the Lord Jesus.’”

Here we have the awkward situation of genuine Christians having a disagreement, both out of genuine Christian inspiration. Paul most likely is inspired by the Jesus’ call to the cross of discipleship and the blessings of faith-based persecution (which can be read in Luke 6:22-23, 9:23-24). Paul’s nagging friends are inspired by the Holy Spirit’s warnings of danger that have been heard repeatedly in different cities (Acts 20:22-23, 21:4).

Who was right – Paul or the other Christians? To this day interpreters still don’t agree on the answer to this question:

• Some say that Paul was sinning by disobeying the voice of the Holy Spirit;
• But others say that Paul was being faithful. These interpreters usually say that the Holy Spirit’s murmurings were not warnings against the return trip to Jerusalem, but rather were signs of the providence of God. Our troubles never catch God by surprise, after all, since God is greater than anything that could harm or scare us.
  
  But one thing that is agreed on is the value of Paul’s friends’ response (in verse 14): “When [Paul] would not be dissuaded, we gave up and said, ‘The Lord's will be done.’”
  
  Grown people will make their own decisions; we can’t do that for them. So the best thing we can do is take it to the Lord in prayer and leave the matter to Him – trusting in Him to work His good and pleasing and perfect will out of the situation, no matter how much other peoples’ decisions frustrate us.
  
  This is part of the reason why Reinhold Niebuhr’s serenity prayer has been so famous: “God grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change, the courage to change the things I can, and the wisdom to know the difference.”
  
  God bless you,
  
  Andrew McHenry, Pastor
  Maple Hill Community Congregational Church