Category: Devotions

The Not-So Innocent Bystander

 

"But you have desired the truth and you have shown me the hidden things of your wisdom."  Psalm 51:6

 

I wonder why it is so easy for some of us to lie to ourselves.  As a former victim, now victor!, I understand all too well how you can get caught up in the things that are happening to you, seemingly without your consent.  Life will throw curve balls, screwballs, and line drives at you and can catch you unprepared.  As each circumstance threatens to wither away at your faith, you stand and just allow it to happen, not intervening on your own behalf.  I call out to you right now to stop standing there as if you cannot do anything about things.  Recognize whose you are and call out to God in faith to change you from a bystander that has nothing to protect him or herself and into the mighty man or woman of God He is calling you to be.

 

Stop acting as if the world is out to get you.  Okay, lets be real, it is–the enemy is using the ways of the world, your weaknesses and fleshly desires to turn you away from God.  But its not like you cannot do anything about it.  You can pray–which is one of the most powerful tools in your arsenal.  No matter how things may look to you on the surface, your prayers are being heard, your prayers are being answered.  They may not be the answers you want, but they are there if you are looking for them.  Stop acting as if everyone is against you…because that is not true!  Even if the whole world is against you–which it isn't, God has placed some people along the way to help you, if you are looking–God is for you!  And as the Good Book says, "What then shall we say to these things? If God is for us, who is against us?" Romans 8:31 (NASB). 

 

I ask you to be real with yourself and see things as they are: you are not that innocent.  We all have a part in our mess.  Yep, I had a part in my bad relationship choices, I had a part in my health (as much as I would like to believe otherwise), I had a part in everything (well, as far as my adult years are concerned).  You had a part in picking that wrong guy, you had a part in picking that wrong job…whatever.  Its not like there were no signs and be honest with yourself by looking back.  God has shown you the truth; it is more so whether you are willing to look at it for what it is.  God wants us to be real with ourselves, and that starts by looking within and seeing things for what they are.  Life is not a drive-by shooting that you are just standing by…if anything sometimes you load the gun and shoot yourself.  Stop living like this and ask God for His divine wisdom and then ask yourself what is in your control, what can you change.   You are not an innocent bystander!

 

"If you need wisdom, ask our generous God, and he will give it to you. He will not rebuke you for asking."  James 1:5 NLT

 

 

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"No weapon formed against you shall prosper; and every tongue that rises against you in judgment you shall condemn. This is the heritage of the servants of God and their righteousness is of me," says the Lord.  Isaiah 54:17
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Wrong Side of the Bed

 

Then call on me when you are in trouble, and I will rescue you, and you will give me glory.  Psalm 50:15

 

Good morning!  I hope that yours has begun much better than my own has.  Ever since the smoke detector went off at 5:30 this morning, I've been angry.  I mean it woke me up in the best part of my sleep…mind you I was supposed to be waking up around that time anyway.  I turned my heat on last night in anticipation of the temperature drop down here.  I knew it would be chilly this morning so I went ahead and turned it on, and ignorantly to me, it would start smoking when it started.  So then when I finally woke up later around 6:30, I was irritated.  Then my yorkie Parker was insistent on staying under my bed even though he is banned from my room lol…when I finally left the house there is traffic, then I make it to the highway only to have more traffic, then I make a detour to try and beat the traffic only to experience the jarring halt of a TRAIN!  So I'm sure you can imagine my intense distress.

 

So finally I broke down and had only a mini-pity party because I immediately realized, thanks God, what the enemy tried to do to me today.  I hadn't really prayed, I mean I spoke to God in anger of the things that were going on this morning.  But I had not thanked the God that woke me up this morning, the God that allowed my body to function to its proper intent, the God that allowed me to get to work safely without harm, the God who is the lover of my soul.  I had not prayed!  I know we all have those days when everything from the start seem to go wrong.  Some things that seem to be outside of your control and without sympathy–we all experience them.  Good and bad, saved and unsaved, we all have them.  But the beauty of this is that as a believer, if I am in tuned with my Guide, we can quickly readjust.  The Holy Spirit will provide you the tools to tune yourself up and get you back in the right place.

 

For me this morning, it took listening to Smokie Norful's 'I Need You Now'…because I desperately needed God to come and touch me in my weakness.  I had to listen to Kirk Franklin's 'Hold Me Now' because in the state I was in, I needed God right then and there.  I needed Him to hug me and tell me it was okay to have those feelings.  God loves us so much that He gave us His Spirit to re-center us when our center of gravity turns us into depraved headhunters.  I'm sure if I had not prayed, had not listened and cried out for God's help, somebody would have gotten hurt or told off this morning.  But I can truly say THANK YOU LORD because He is always there to hear my cry and start me over on the right side.

 

"He will fulfill the desire of those who fear Him; He will also hear their cry and will save them."  Psalm 145:19