He's Bigger

I could not get a post to come together today...my mind was blank and the Holy Spirit was quiet so I put things away for a couple of hours.  The words, "the work is done" popped into my head.  I ridiculously kept trying to write and when I tried to post  a writing the Lord clearly didn't approve of I ended up on the archive page.  When I tried to click out of the archive page, I landed  on this post from 2015...I'm smiling through tears at the timing and wisdom of the Lord...seems like 5 years later, we haven't changed as much as we thought.

In my distress I called to the Lord…Psalm 18:6

If our high school would have had a debate team, I would have been absolutely the last person picked to be on it!  I’m amazed at the way some people can eloquently deliberate a topic with conviction and finesse.  Still others can bark an opinion and slam you with a defense that leaves your head spinning.  I simply smell controversy or conflict and nearly trip over my own feet trying to get away from the conversation! We all have our own opinions and we all have the ability to make choices but that doesn’t mean we are obligated to yell them out.  As Christians, it’s up to us to make sure our opinions and choices are based on truth and rooted in Scripture and Church teaching.  Seems simple enough right?

As a society we don’t like to be told what to do. We aren’t so good with rules and regulations and I wonder if that is because there are so many voices yackin we can’t even hear the truth anymore. I’m not sure what happened to right and wrong; good and bad but we seem to live in a world full of clauses and sub-groups and exceptions.  Some days I think gray is the most popular color in America. A very wise man I know always used to say, “Just do the right thing and keep your mouth shut.”  Imagine what would happen if everyone was told to follow that advice for a day!  What would happen if everyone was told they couldn’t say one thing for a day unless it was based in truth and steeped in Scripture?  

A person could get pretty upset and discouraged with the state of affairs we seem to be in right now; but then that’s exactly what Satan wants.  He would be delighted to think he’s reduced us all to a society of bickering, selfish, self-centered, slandering, lying, cheating, stealing idiots.  He would be delighted to think we’ve forgotten our mission to seek the truth, live the truth and love the God who created us.  Well news flash…WE HAVEN’T!  I have come to realize a couple important truths of my own in the last couple days that seemed to yank me right out of my disappointment with our current state of affairs.  The first; when we get to heaven we won’t present a summary of our best earthly actions nor will we be judged in groups.  We are flying SOLO so it is our sole responsibility to make sure the choices we make and the opinions we base our actions on are in line with the will of the Father.  One thing that is not gray…following the will of the Father is often very hard!  He cares about our character not our comfort. The second; God is bigger than anything going on here on earth!  He’s mightier than any ruling, leader, mandate or current event.  He’s the one we should be aligning ourselves with, seeking protection from, gaining wisdom from and hanging on every word from.  In order to do that well; to really follow His lead; we need to spend time in conversation with him.  What would happen if the next time we see a post, or hear a news report that bubbles up our blood we stopped before reacting and spent a moment or two in prayer.  Before we spout off our opinion what if we asked the Holy Spirit to inspire our words to be truthful and steeped in Scripture?  God is bigger, richer, stronger and mightier than any of us combined but in order to see all of that clearly revealed to this hurting world, we have to live like we love him and become a world that prays first before anything else!

A Seed To Plant: Make a list of three “things”, “people”, or “groups” that seem to bother you most. Your task for the next week is to pray consistently for those three things.  In your prayer, ask God to guide your actions and reactions to those three things.

Blessings on your day!