Category: Devotions

A Two-Sided X-Ray

 

"Blessed be the LORD your God who delighted in you to set you on the throne of Israel; because the LORD loved Israel forever, therefore He made you king, to do justice and righteousness."  1 Kings 10:9

 

King Solomon is known for asking God for wisdom and discernment over all the things he could have asked for.  More familiar is the story of the two mothers, one whose baby died and stole another woman's baby.  The true mother of the child would rather give her child up than to see any harm come to him.  To discern which mother was genuinely the mother of the child, Solomon had to look at both mother's reactions and recognize the behaviors of the real mother.

 

I'm gonna be brief: sometimes we need to stand in front of that x-ray machine and look deep within ourselves at our own imperfections, at our own shortcomings, before we dwell on those of others.  I'm sure if a two-sided x-ray existed it would greatly revolutionize health care–because you would be able to see what is causing your ailment, be it bitterness, anger, jealousy, or just plain stupidity. Usually you don't know what you are looking at until someone points it out to you–usually in judgment.  But if we all took a little time to examine ourselves, we could save ourselves money, sanity, and heartache. Remember who the ultimate judge is…so don't lie to yourself and look within.  I'm going to bed now so I won't throw my computer for my negligence to save my essay on one of my applications!!

 

Be blessed.

The Product of Complaining

 

 "Why are you downcast, O my soul? Why so disturbed within me? Put your hope in God, for I will yet praise him, my Savior and my God. My soul is downcast within me; therefore I will remember you from the land of the Jordan, the heights of Hermon–from Mount Mizar."  Psalm 42:5-6

 

There are three occurrences of the same wording above in Psalms…kinda ironic right?  Read what it says about complaining ad feeling sorry for yourself!

 

Okay, when I was little, I loved growing things.  Any flower, plant, vegetable, you name it, I probably tried to grow it.  See, I love trying new things and mastering them.  Actually, I would love to have a little garden/planter box out here except I have birds, cats, and jumbo country spiders to get angry about.  So anyway, one time, I had some cucumber seeds.  I planted them and pretty much left them alone.  I complained that they were not growing and maybe were just duds.  Before I knew it, I had baby cucumbers growing and starting to get big.  Then one day I noticed a big chunk was missing out of one of em–I think I had three–and holes in the other ones.  Moral:  quit complaining!  Everything takes time.  Nothing is overnight, except weeds.  And you don't want weeds growing up in your garden. 

 

Like in the Parable of the Planter, the seeds that fell among weeds choked.  When we complain, we choke ourselves.  Of course not literally people.  But of course everything that is literal can manifest itself in the physical.  We miss out on the opportunity to grow and exercise our faith by complaining.  We miss out on the chance to look at the situation from another perspective and try again.  We miss out on the chance just look and see what God protected us from!  I looked up synonyms of complain–and there were over 50 words that meant the same thing!  That's a shame, that the English language promotes complaining rather than finding a way out of the situation.  Its terrible that people always find the negative in a situation rather than look on the bright side–most obviously the fact that you are still alive to live another day and figure out how to get past whatever is troubling you.  I wish I could do a study to prove that people with negative dispositions are more likely to have more pain and suffer more.  I have a living example…   I proved the opposite–I and the positive lights in my life believed that I would recover miraculously and I did just that.  My brother's kidney started making urine within the hour of being put in my body!  That and of course speaking the word of God over both of us…in fact I remind myself how God has made a way in many impossible situations as a constant reminder that the bad is only temporary and what my eternal promise provides…you should try it!  Try to be content in spite, be happy because that is something you choose to do!  You can choose to complain, and plant those seeds and see what you reap!

"The LORD is my portion, saith my soul; therefore will I hope in him." Lamentations 3:24