Friday Focus #43

Take Ownership

Psalm 7:3-5. I have not fully read through the Book of Psalm yet, but this chapter jumped out to me in my head. I read the chapter until I came across something that would be interesting to write about. While reading, a few verses jumped out to me. I had to get some background on them so that I didn't misunderstand what was being said. Here, David is speaking to God. He says, "O Lord my God, if I have done this, if there is wrong in my hands, if I have repaid my friend with evil, or plundered my enemy without cause, let the enemy pursue my soul and overtake it, and let him trample my life to the ground and lay my glory in the dust." David lets God know "if" I have done something wrong to his friend or done wrong to an enemy for no good reason, then he says let them overtake me and trample my life to the ground. I like that David even looks at himself saying "if I" where many of us would not. There is no "if I have done wrong" in many arguments, disagreements, and issues in our lives. It usually is finger pointing. When, not if, but when you go to God for your troubles, open up and give Him the chance to show you if you have done others wrong. Maybe the trouble that you are experiencing is due to something you have done, not everything everyone else has done. Be honest with yourself and allow yourself to take ownership for your own problems.

PLEASE SEE THE LOGOS AND LINKS BELOW TO SHARE VIA EMAIL, TWITTER, FACEBOOK, PINTEREST AND GOOGLE PLUS. THANKS!

John 9- Whose Fault Was It?

Whose Fault Was It?

In John 9:1-12 Jesus heals a blind man and people try to find out whose sin caused the man to be blind. They ask if it was the man's fault or if it was his parents. The man was born that way and Jesus sets the issue straight and focuses on not what caused the sin or who is at fault but how God can be seen through this man. Jesus did his part and spit in the dirt to make mud and anointed the man's eyes. Then washed off where Jesus told him to and then could see for the first time.

 

I italicized "his part" in the previous paragraph to stress how important it is for Jesus to be able to do his part. His part is what can allow for miracles to happen. We cannot fix every problem in the world. We can do our part and allow God to come in and do his part.

Whether someone is born with an ailment or condition or they develop it, it doesn't matter. The healing power of Jesus wipes it away. We have to be able to do our part too though. We can always do something whether it is prayer, helping people get to doctors, or in other cases being a friend full of compassion. Jesus was very compassionate. He knew that the man had an ailment that needed fixing, not condemnation. Once again we see how Jesus was only focused on healing, not the politics of blame.

 

PLEASE SEE THE LOGOS AND LINKS BELOW TO SHARE VIA EMAIL, TWITTER, FACEBOOK, PINTEREST AND GOOGLE PLUS. THANKS!

Friday Focus #6

Taking Ownership of Our Actions

We have to stop blaming God for where our life is. We have to stop blaming God for how we feel. And we have to stop blaming God for the things that happen to us after we make bad decisions. Ultimately we have to take ownership of our actions. Our actions can be a determining factor as to whether or not we are seeking to be aligned with God or just seeking to please ourselves.

I have had many conversations regarding God and what He would allow in our lives. Such questions circle around topics like why does God allow suffering or evil. The truth is, we live in a broken world full of broken people. It started with Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden and eating from the tree of knowledge of good and evil. God said in Genesis 2:15-17 that Adam and Eve could eat from any tree except for that tree for surely they would die. So what did Adam and Eve do? They did exactly what they were not supposed to. They were tempted by the serpent (we understand to be Satan or temptation) who in Genesis 3:1-7 questioned what God said and then debunked what God had already commanded.

Isn't that what Satan does to us now? We know what God says based on what is written in scripture. We understand what God says, but when tempted with whatever tempts us, we can fall when we stray away from obedience. We do not always choose to run away from temptation. When we give in to temptations the results can be immediately catastrophic or eventually. I am not writing these things to scare people into obedience but to illustrate how when we do the opposite of what God commands, we fall right into Satan's trap and we are now further away from God.

Remember King David and Bathsheba and how their affair lead to a child out of wedlock and she was married to someone else? In order for David and Bathsheba to try to hide their shame (just like Adam and Eve wearing loincloths after eating the fruit), David tried to have Bathsheba's husband sleep with his wife (had him come home from war early), but Uriah was too drunk and did not so then David set Uriah up to be killed. Do you see how David and Bathsheba's infidelity and disobeying God went from something small and in a worldly sense very "innocent" lead to her husband's death? Even though David eventually married Bathsheba, God was still not happy with what David had done (2nd Samuel 11:27).

Look at is this way, when you do what God says and you are obedient, it doesn't make life perfect, but His will protects us from Satan's temptations and our own selfishness. In Proverbs 14:12 we see how a way that a man/person sees is the right way to them ends up being the track to death (not necessarily physical death- but even spiritual).

When we are tempted to go against God's will, we can either flee from the temptation which leads to only momentary satisfaction or we can seek God's will for our lives on a moment by moment and daily basis which leads to a closer connection to Him. We are not perfect, but God's will for our lives is.

PLEASE SEE THE LOGOS AND LINKS BELOW TO SHARE THIS VIA EMAIL, TWITTER, FACEBOOK, PINTEREST, AND GOOGLE PLUS. THANKS.