ALL – Psalm 67:1-7
ALL – Proverbs 11:27
OT – Deuteronomy 2:1-3:29
NT – Luke 6:12-38
What makes you sad? Pain? Being excluded? Insults? Being treated unfairly or unkindly? These wrongs and difficulties are the basis for many of the sad days I’ve experienced.
What makes you happy? Comfort? Wealth? Laughter and jokes? Being included? Receiving praises? Being super-respected? These certainly make me feel good.
At least, they did. But ever since Jesus expressed His perspective on these things, I’ve had to wrestle with my feelings. Apparently I am getting things backwards. I find happiness in the wrong things—in shallow things that won’t last. And I become sad for shallow reasons, too, when deep and wonderful gifts have been given to me and should give me joy!
What happiness it is when others hate you and exclude you and insult you and smear your name because you are mine! When that happens, rejoice! Yes, leap for joy! For you will have a great reward awaiting you in heaven. And you will be in good company—the ancient prophets were treated that way, too! But, oh, the sorrows that await the rich. For they have their only happiness down here. They are fat and prosperous now, but a time of awful hunger is before them. Their careless laughter now means sorrow then. And what sadness is ahead for those praised by the crowds—for false prophets have always been praised. – Luke 6:22-26, The Living Bible
So what should make us happy? Being included with Jesus and His family seems like the right answer. And what should make us sad? Having our best life now without any relationship with Jesus and His family—a tragedy in the making!
Are you happy? Or sad? And why? It’s so easy for our perspectives to get misguided by our feelings. Let’s look to Jesus and learn to let our perspectives shape our feelings, walking by faith and finding His happiness and joy.
To review the Bible reading plan options, please visit http://tinyurl.com/yj2o7jz.
Showing posts with label perspective. Show all posts
Showing posts with label perspective. Show all posts
Wednesday, March 24, 2010
Friday, March 5, 2010
L.O.V.E.
ALL – Psalm 48:1-14
ALL – Proverbs 10:26
OT – Numbers 4:1-5:31
NT – Mark 12:18-37
It’s amazing how quickly we forget what we’re up to. Not just in the little things of life, but the big things. Our expectations and perspectives are too quickly warped.
For instance, in marriage. We get married, usually, very much aware that our spouse wants us to be happy and that we want our spouse to be happy. But then, what happens? Well, unfortunately, no one pays us to make our spouse happy (wouldn’t that be an awesome job!). So we go off to work. At first, our intention at work is still largely to make our spouse happy; we’re there, after all, so that we can afford a place to stay, food to eat, clothes to wear, and a variety of fun things to do together. But then, it’s easy for work to become more and more important in our lives, and soon it’s our employers we are trying to please rather than our spouses. Work life goes great. Home life? Not so much.
It’s like that with God sometimes, too. We know that our relationship with Him is first. And we want to respond appropriately, lovingly, wholeheartedly. And then we begin to do things out of love for Him. And then we begin to do the same things to prove how much we love Him. And soon we’re doing those things to prove how much God ought to love us—and not just God, but everyone else, too. We begin to get caught up in the work we first did because of God’s love for us, and that same work becomes a matter of our love for us—our self-justifications, our basis for boasting, our reputations, our honor. No longer Christ’s. No longer Christ’s.
It’s amazing how quickly we forget what we’re up to. We forget what drives us. We forget who gives us strength. We begin to take control. We begin to set up our own goals, our own masterplans, our own motivations. And rather than living a life powered by love of and for God, we do the same things in a life powered by love of and for ourselves.
Jesus always knew what He was up to, and what we all should be up to:
One of the teachers of religion who was standing there listening to the discussion realized that Jesus had answered well. So he asked, “Of all the commandments, which is the most important?”
Jesus replied, “The one that says, ‘Hear O Israel! The Lord our God is the one and only God. And you must love him with all your heart and soul and mind and strength.’ The second is, ‘You must love others as much as yourself.’ No other commandments are greater than these.” – Mark 12:28-31, The Living Bible
Have you forgotten what you’re up to? How can we help to turn one another back to a wholehearted love for God and for those He’s put into our lives?
To review the Bible reading plan options, please visit http://tinyurl.com/yj2o7jz.
ALL – Proverbs 10:26
OT – Numbers 4:1-5:31
NT – Mark 12:18-37
It’s amazing how quickly we forget what we’re up to. Not just in the little things of life, but the big things. Our expectations and perspectives are too quickly warped.
For instance, in marriage. We get married, usually, very much aware that our spouse wants us to be happy and that we want our spouse to be happy. But then, what happens? Well, unfortunately, no one pays us to make our spouse happy (wouldn’t that be an awesome job!). So we go off to work. At first, our intention at work is still largely to make our spouse happy; we’re there, after all, so that we can afford a place to stay, food to eat, clothes to wear, and a variety of fun things to do together. But then, it’s easy for work to become more and more important in our lives, and soon it’s our employers we are trying to please rather than our spouses. Work life goes great. Home life? Not so much.
It’s like that with God sometimes, too. We know that our relationship with Him is first. And we want to respond appropriately, lovingly, wholeheartedly. And then we begin to do things out of love for Him. And then we begin to do the same things to prove how much we love Him. And soon we’re doing those things to prove how much God ought to love us—and not just God, but everyone else, too. We begin to get caught up in the work we first did because of God’s love for us, and that same work becomes a matter of our love for us—our self-justifications, our basis for boasting, our reputations, our honor. No longer Christ’s. No longer Christ’s.
It’s amazing how quickly we forget what we’re up to. We forget what drives us. We forget who gives us strength. We begin to take control. We begin to set up our own goals, our own masterplans, our own motivations. And rather than living a life powered by love of and for God, we do the same things in a life powered by love of and for ourselves.
Jesus always knew what He was up to, and what we all should be up to:
One of the teachers of religion who was standing there listening to the discussion realized that Jesus had answered well. So he asked, “Of all the commandments, which is the most important?”
Jesus replied, “The one that says, ‘Hear O Israel! The Lord our God is the one and only God. And you must love him with all your heart and soul and mind and strength.’ The second is, ‘You must love others as much as yourself.’ No other commandments are greater than these.” – Mark 12:28-31, The Living Bible
Have you forgotten what you’re up to? How can we help to turn one another back to a wholehearted love for God and for those He’s put into our lives?
To review the Bible reading plan options, please visit http://tinyurl.com/yj2o7jz.
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