So Why Do We Get It So Wrong?
Sunday, November 12, 2023
Nothing Looks Like What It Is If We Do Not Gain God’s Perspective.
For example my work for today.
Genesis 45:24
Then he sent his brothers on their way, and as they were leaving he said to them, ‘Do not quarrel along the way.’
Colossians 3:13
Bear with one another and, if anyone has a complaint against another, forgive each other; just as the Lord has forgiven you, so you also must forgive.”
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Words of Grace For Today
Nothing looks like what it is if we are in the mode of telling others what to do, or if others are in the mode of telling us what to do!
Joseph could spend all his breath on telling his brothers not to quarrel. They were still going to quarrel.
‘Paul’ (well Colossians is probably not Paul himself but someone writing decades later in his name) could spend as much ink telling people how to behave, and especially how to be good, and even more desperately what they MUST do, like forgiving one another, but people are people and forgiving is not something people do on their own. Neither is being good, nor doing what must be done.
Any parent can give numerous stories how telling their teen not to do something simply invites the teen to go out and try it, somehow so their parents do not find out about their attempts.
So it is when we look at the world: unless we have God’s perspective (given to us, because there is no way we gain it on our own or in any other way) we simply do not understand what is going on around us, not fully, and we are completely incapable of doing the right thing for the circumstances on our own. Only the Holy Spirit guiding us can get us in that direction.
So we pray like mad the Holy Spirit will guide us
to do right,
and what MUST be done,
like forgive others,
and
also ourselves.
…
After all,
God has already.
….
(My work was adapting the exhaust for the water heater, again, so that it will work in cold weather, real hard cold weather, without having to be on all the time.)