These things I know:
1. I have so much, in Christ, to be thankful for and to look forward to – PRAISE BE TO JESUS!
2. God the Father, through Jesus, is writing my story (yours, too).
3. That story isn’t finished. This is worthy of another pause, and another praise proclamation!
4. In the midst of the story, God wants to use us as instruments of redemption to a lost world.
5. The best way to be instruments of His glory is to imitate His love (Good Samaritans).
I know these things, too:
1. I don’t love like Jesus.
2. I want to…
3. The best way to grow in that goal is to focus on the WORDS of The Lord, since they are a reflection of His heart.
4. Time is short, only love lasts…so every moment needs to count; it requires intentional space-making.
What’s next now that I have this head knowlege? As I sit in a Barnes & Noble Starbucks, anonymous & “alone,” I pick up where I left off in 1 Peter. Look at these words, and if conviction doesn’t grip your heart, as it has mine sitting here in this corner, there’s something wrong:
“Put away” is a mild translation. It really means, cast off (as despised), throw away, get rid of. “Put away” sounds like something you would pack up and store for possible future use. Throw away is another story entirely! It means I bury it (just as the Lord does with the stuff he could hold against us, but doesn’t) in the deepest ocean, never to retrieve it again.
Here’s the problem. I think I’ve done that when people have hurt me in the past. I tell myself often that is exactly what I’ve done with those wounds. Truth is that scrambling around inside my heart are little bits and pieces of malice, deceit, hypocrisy, envy, & all manners of slander. Truth is that I’m all about Team Peg, and getting others on my “side”. Truth is that in ways I haven’t realized, I’ve wanted to eliminate the problem people from my world, so I lock them up in a prison of my own, inside my heart, and then guard the prison cells. I’ve never eliminated them at all! The Lord showed me that picture, and whispered the words, “Set them free.” Then, as if on cue, pictures of specific faces began popping in my mind (believe me, if you’re reading this, you aren’t one of those faces). The best way to set a prisoner free is to pray a blessing over them (with most of these folks forgiveness has already been asked, and offered; or, forgiveness has been sought, and there has been some semblance of relationship restored…yet, trust, and fear, are the main issues). So, I walked down the halls of my prison, opened the doors, threw away the key, and let each one walk out as I prayed a prayer of blessing over them. Oddly enough, if there was someone I forgot, it seemed the Lord either brought them to mind, or I crossed paths with them at the local grocery or hardware store. Yet, when I got to the end of the line, can you guess who was in the last prison cell? Oh yeah, me! I threw away that key, too, and even prayed a blessing over myself!
My life is much less stressful since giving up my “other job” as guard dog. My heart feels less burdened, and I sense more energy that I know the Lord would have me turn into proactive loving…I wonder if you’re holding onto an extra job you need to eliminate? I highly recommend putting it away, casting it off, throwing it away, getting rid of it by burying it in the deepest part of the sea…!!!!