It's Not Always About Us

As human beings, we want things to go our way - It's human nature and it's something that we often expect. However, when things don't go our way, we tend to get upset and down hearted and we let that show to others. In fact, a lot of times what ends up happening is that we end up thinking so much about ourselves in these situations and we forget about someone very important - God.

Think about your personal prayers to God. When you pray, are you basically just asking for things from God to benefit yourself or are you making sure you acknowledge him and take time to praise Him for what he's done? Now just think about your thoughts during the day... Do you think about God on a regular basis and include Him in your decisions? Or do your thoughts mainly consist of what's best for you and what will make you the happiest?

We're put on this earth to praise God and do His Will and lead other souls to Him. And selfishness can sometimes be one of the BIGGEST factors standing in the way of doing that. In fact how often do we move God aside to accommodate OUR wants and desires? - i.e. missing church on a Wednesday night because of a personal conflict or missing a devotional or a bible class because of something else going on? - And trust me, I'm as guilty as any. (Did I mention I tend to write about things that I'm dealing with?)

The fact is: God needs to be THE #1 most important thing in our life. If we put Him first and seek His Will, everything else will fall into place. .

Paul says in Romans 1:21 "because, although they knew God, they did not glorify Him as God, nor were they thankful, but became futile in their thoughts, and their foolish hearts were darkened." - We can't let this happen to us. We have to get God into our life - just KNOWING Him isn't enough...

Be a good example

In the entry yesterday, I mentioned that if we love others we will be able to lead others to Christ. That made me think throughout the day today - and throughout the course of the day, I've been thinking a lot about how to effectively lead others to Jesus. As Christians, we have the responsibility to preach the Word to others and lead them to Jesus (Mark 16:15-16). I think something that we don't always realize is how much we teach people through our actions.

I've had people at work recently pull me aside or have a conversation with me and tell me, "You know, you're different from everybody else here - you don't ever curse or joke about dirty things like everybody else..." That really made me stop and think to myself, "Wow, I didn't realize people were paying that much attention to my actions." It's so true though - people are always watching you. We have to use that as an opportunity to be a good example to them.

Today's lesson is a very simple one - though not the easiest. Be a shining light to others.

Paul tells us in Philippians 2:15 "That you may become blameless and harmless children of God without fault in the midst of a crooked and perverse generation among whom you shine as lights in the world."

This verse tells us that we cannot be like the rest of the world and that we need to stand out and shine as lights so that other people can see the Lord and his goodness. When we act Christ-like to and around others - they will take notice and it will prick their hearts. Be sure to realize that people are always watching and are always influenced by our actions.

Forgiveness pt. 2

Today I'm not really going to write too much more about forgiveness - I'm just going to elaborate on something that I touched on in my entry yesterday; loving others.

Love is one of the greatest blessings that the Lord has given to us. We are so blessed that A. He loves us and B. That he's given us the ability to feel love and give love to others. But are we picky with who we give our love to? Do we just show love towards are husbands, wives, boyfriends, girlfriends, family members, friends, etc - or do we display love to everybody. As we know, Jesus commands us that we must love our enemies and pray for those who persecute us. Let's face it, we live in a world where hatred is a common thing - and sometimes its easy to "be one of the crowd" and find people who we judge or don't like.

I think one of the best ways to check your attitude towards others is to turn to 1 Corinthians 13 and ask yourself some questions from the aspects of love that Paul lists. For instance:

Am I kind to this person?

Am I envious of this person?

Am I parading myself around this person?

Am I rude to this person?

Am I provoked by this person or am I thinking evil about this person?

The scary thing is that I can look at that list and have a picture in my head of people I'm envious of or people that I'm not particularly kind to... How about you?

I think we tend to sit back and claim that we have a love for everybody, but when we really think about it and get down to it - it's not as good as we think it is.

We have to show love to everyone just as Christ showed loved to us and by doing that, we will lead others to Him.