The
Devotional
Comment:
The battle rages does it not? If you
were to look into your mind this morning and evaluate what it is that ticks you
off, would you not see those desires that promote pleasure? Come on now and be
honest… God forbid, not with me; but
be honest with yourself. Do you not see the desire to be right almost without
regard to the other person in that maybe they have that same desire burning
within their mind too? The specifics of who is right and who is wrong is
certainly not the issue since the list of things we might consider right in our
own eyes is normally wrong in the eyes of another. We live with people, even
within our own family who differ in thought and reason and if we fail to listen
to their point of view and push our point we have not only failed with friends
and loved ones, we have also failed with God. There is one simple word for this
failure and it is PRIDE resulting from a love for the world, a lust from the
eyes that perceive and a lust for the flesh to be satisfied. 1 John 2:15-17
Devotional:
Pride promotes strife, if you are in a battle today with
anyone, it is a battle that comes within you and comes from the desire in your
heart to war with another simply because of the pleasure it brings to be right.
Notice what the apostle James has to say about this.
James 4:1-12 – Where do wars (battles) and fights come from
among you? Do they not come from your desires for pleasure that war (rage) within you? You lust and do not have it your way. You murder (defame or
slander) and you covet to be right
but you cannot obtain it. So the fight begins and the battle rages.
Often in these events, we will cry out to the LORD for help,
but we ask God to be on our side. This is a critical error on our part simply
because of our desire to covet (claim as ours) what does not belong to us; what
by the way does not belong to us? It is the desire of the other person involved
in the rage! Our desire is to spend what God may offer as a solution on our
self, without regard to the other person. Coveting to be right is already in
God’s mind “wrong”. He will not allow His grace to bless the prideful, but He
will allow and give more grace to the humble.
Now what if all of that raging, battling and fighting should
continue and the other person seems graciously blest of God? Does the Scripture
speak in vain? Absolutely NO! It does not speak in vain, the Spirit of God is
jealously yearning for His saints to learn to be humble. Humble does not mean
to give in or give up, also being humble does not mean to destroy the other
brother or sister in Christ. You are not the lawgiver, nor are you the law
maker. There is but one Judge who is able to save and destroy. So stop judging
another and the LORD will lift you up.
These battles and fights REQUIRE prayer, a mutual coming
together and a mutual understanding that God alone is the LORD of life and He
alone is the One who can and does provide the answer to ALL of life’s troubles.
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