God’s Word to You is
Colossians 3:8
8 But now you must put them all away: anger, wrath, malice, slander, and obscene talk from your mouth.
James 1:19-20
Hearing and Doing the Word
19 Know this, my beloved brothers: let every person be quick to hear, slow to speak, slow to anger; 20 for the anger of man does not produce the righteousness of God.
2 Corinthians 5:21
21 For our sake He made Him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in Him we might become the righteousness of God.
I have a problem. I struggle with it daily. I control it much better than before I met Jesus, but it is still there. Because I met Him the focus of this problem has changed, but of course so have I. But I still battle this challenge daily.
The problem? The voice in my head. Also the way I let that voice affect the one out of my mouth and what I write.
At my age I have seen enough life to see where others are headed. I know much of the wrong direction because I have been there and back. I lived in the pre-Civil Rights era and thru the Affirmative Action era, I lived thru the Sexual Revolution, the legalization of abortion and the Leave it to Beaver era.
I remember black and white tv and am amazed I have a mini computer that talks back to me and is my phone, camera, music and connection to the world that goes everywhere I do.
It’s crazy to have so much and crazier that with how the world has changed, how our country has changed, how even those who protest they don’t have enough in our country still have more than over a third of the world does, yet still protest for more.
People have far too much envy, greed and hate in our country as well as this entitlement disease that has run rampant for several decades. And folks, it isn’t one race of people, it is several generations old and all races in our country.
A big part of my problem with that voice in my head is trying to get people to appreciate more of what they have as well as help them see how envy and greed are leading them to lose the freedoms they enjoy. Yet I come across hateful to some or full of common sense to others while I am trying to be loving to everyone.
The challenge is hate. The evil of hate knows no holiday nor avoids any persons. It catches a thought or movement and spreads to the heart and defiles the work God has started in even the staunchest follower of God and leads them into battle for control.
Here are some simple truths. Some of us won’t like them. Some will deny them. Some will make excuses why they don’t fit in what they believe. But we all can, have or will make excuses for our sins, won’t we?
We deserve nothing. We don’t deserve what others have. We can’t change the past nor erase it. We can’t have everything others have. Not everyone will like us. Not everyone will agree with us.
But, if we are His, we have to love others anyway. I like a phrase I heard a few years ago. We are His witnesses, not His lawyers.
We can’t change people, He can. We can’t control bigotry, racism or prejudice, He can. We can’t make Heaven on earth, He will.
Do we stop trying to fight wrongs? Of course not. But we need to honor Him in our fights and stop trying to be Him. Make our morals His morals. Fight evil with love not hate. Be responsible for our own walk with Him and show Him to every person we meet.
It’s hard isn’t it?
But as John said, we must become less, He must become more. We need to lift each other up, not try to stand above each other.
me n’ God love ya