Friday, January 8, 2016

I got into a mess at school last week. I thought I had a guardian angel that was supposed to keep me from falling into troubles. -Jake

Oh, Jake!

The answer to your question has a number of layers.  First, you are correct, you do have a guardian angel assigned to you by God.  The angel's job is to care for you in a way that does not interfere with your free will.     The angel is to guard you on your path and guide you, lead you, and protect you, but only in regards as to how you allow your angel to do those things for/with you.  Your angel will lead you to the place God has prepared for you if you permit it!

In the book of Exodus, God speaks to Moses during the delivery of the 10 Commandments.  God says, "I am sending an angel before you, to guard you on the way and bring you to the place I have prepared.  Be attentive to him and heed his voice.  Do not rebel against him, for he will not forgive your sin.  My authority resides in him." Ex 23:20-21

So you can see that the protection the angel provides is not one of being your conscience, but one that guides and protects and influences you according to the way we obey God's commands and that guidance the angel extends to you.  You have the choice to listen and obey those nudges of your angel, or you can leave your angel alone.

In the New Testament, Jesus reminds the apostles that we have angels watching over us.  When there are children in his presence he says, "See that you never despise on of these little ones.  I assure you, their angels in heaven constantly behold my heavenly Father's face."  (Matt 18:10)   

So, YES, you do have a guardian angel.

That being made clear, all me to speak to another layer of this question.  That of FREE WILL.  FREE WILL is that special gift from God which allows us to choose God and God's ways or to ignore God's desire for us.   Free will is not the ability to do whatever we want.  We just can't.  For example, I can't go 80 miles an hour in a school zone without getting into trouble.  Someone can't kill another person and not receive a penalty.  Free will is the gift of being allowed to choose God's ways or not.  God doesn't want a bunch of robots in heaven.  God wants people who have chosen to love Him by their own choosing.

The third layer is one of taking responsibility for one's actions.  That is a very hard thing for many people.  When I do something wrong, or bad, or when I hurt someone's feelings, I have to take the brunt of that.  I have to be mature and make amends for that wrong.  It is nobody else's fault that I choose to do something that is wrong.  For example:  If I don't like the kid in front of me in line at school and I decide to give him a little push and it ends up that he is so caught off guard that he falls into the water fountain and breaks his tooth and gets a big black eye, I can't say, "Oh, it was an accident.  I didn't mean to do it."  The real story is that I meant to push him.  That was something bad.  I didn't mean for him to get hurt, but he wouldn't have gotten hurt if I wasn't doing something I wasn't supposed to do in the first place.  The whole mess is my fault.  I then have to suffer the consequences.   And ... I have nobody to blame but me. 

That's called taking responsibility.  It's something that separates being a mature person from an immature one.  It's also a problem we've had since Adam and Eve - remember Adam blamed Eve for eating of the fruit of the tree of knowledge.  Then Eve blamed the serpent.  ... Human nature from the beginning.  

But, we can learn from others and be aware and learn to make better decisions.  That will allow us to grow into the person God desires us to be.  It's not easy, but it will definitely be worth it when we get to God and He says, "Well done, my good and faithful servant!"

Good luck, Jake!!

No comments:

Post a Comment