Ps 73: 1-10 No doubt
about it! God is good--- But I nearly missed it, missed seeing his
goodness. I was looking the other way,
looking up to people at the top, envying the wicked, who have made it. Who have
nothing to worry about, not a care in the whole wide world. Pretentious with arrogance, they wear the
latest fashions in violence, pampered and overfed, decked out in silk bows of
silliness. They jeer, using words to kill; they bully their way with words.
They’re full of hot air, loudmouths disturbing the peace. People actually
listen to them—can you believe it? Like thirsty puppies, they lap up their
words. The Message Bible
Have you ever read something in the bible that you swear
wasn’t there before? That is how I felt about Psalm 73. After I read it I thought, ‘how did I miss
that’. Especially the last line – ‘People
actually listen to these bullies’-
Ouch! I did that.
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The bible describes those people as arrogant overfed bullies
ready to kill. When we see people for whom they are it is wonder why we would
follow them in lieu of following God
If we are hurt and wounded we can not see the truth, therefore
we blindly follow people instead of God. It becomes the blind leading the
blind. . 2 Cor. 10:12 We are not,
understand, putting ourselves in a league with those who boast that they’re
superiors. We wouldn’t dare do that. But in all this comparing and grading and
competing, they quite miss the point.
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Jesus said to pray for those who persecute you. When our hurts blind us to the truth we focus
on ourselves and don’t have the capacity to pray for others because we can’t
see that too are hurting people. Instead we want revenge which heaps more
hurts on them. During my school years, many moons ago, I was bullied by a girl. Years later I found out she had an abusive
alcoholic father. That was how she dealt
with her pain, to inflict pain of some one else. I could not see her pain and
pray for her because I was focused on the pain she lashed out to me.
When I am weeding my flower bed, removing the ugly weeds the
beauty of the flowers begin to emerge. That is like our lives. I can now see hurting people’s pain and pray
for them and love them because God has taken the weeds out of my life. God is
good and powerful and always has the best interest for us, therefore to listen
and follow people is foolishness.
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The second commandment is to love your neighbor as
yourself. When we allow others to boss us
and tell us whom we are, instead of listening to God, we don’t love ourselves enough to love others. You can only give out what
you have inside.
Getting this pain and hurt out of us and replacing it with
God’s love and truth is like eating an elephant, one bite at a time. Don’t expect it to happen over night. God has taken years to heal me. It was always
His timing and His way, not mine. All I
had to do was submit to Him step by step, one bite at a time.
I pray we will learn to love the unlovable after we have
learned to love ourselves.
7:12 AM |
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4
comments
Comments (4)
What a great message .Thank you, very relevant to my life.
Wow!! Powerful words this morning and definitely one I needed to here. I consistently have "friends" who are quick to judge me since I have had a struggle finding a job that "they" think I should have. I find myself getting angry at them for not understanding . . . .but I know I need to pray harder for how I react to them . . .to do it in love as Jesus would. Thank you for reminding me of that!
He does this step by step, line upon line, precept upon precept, that we might digest and make our own the next level He has promoted us to. Just like the children of Israel - he told them the promised land would be theirs to capture - bit by bit.
We would not be able to process the whole of the Plan He has for us if it happened all at once - it is like eating an elephant.
This is a beautiful post, written from your heart. I so enjoyed it! When I read the Scriptures, I ask the Lord to inject me into the scenarios. Seeing myself as the good, the bad and the ugly, creates within me, a forgiving and humble heart. And, you know what? As I read more and more of the Word, it becomes increasingly difficult for me to judge others, without judging myself. The love and mercy that the Lord has bestowed upon me, comes bursting through in my judgement of others. It's as though the Lord opens my eyes and heart to more love, humbleness and mercy every day. I am learning to lace my words with "life and love" instead of correction and judgement. Just as I have seen others as unlovable, others have, most likely, seen me as unlovable.... Thank you, for this message. It touched my heart. Blessings!