God is Personal

It's funny how God will bring you full circle when he is trying to teach you something.  You think you've got it, and then he shows you another angle.

I was watching a pastor on television over the weekend.  The sermon was recorded in the 1970s with the men sporting those fat ties and ladies with their butterfly collars and wispy long hair.  But, what he said was relevant to what had been going on with me, thirty some years later.  What he said and what I had read earlier that morning from Oswald Chambers reminded me that no matter what others may do, those actions should not make me love them less.  That no matter what situation I find myself in or how hurt I may be...I still need to love them.  That even though what they say may hurt, I have to remember what God says.  That He is the truth.  I need to get more and more to the point where what others do and say is not so important to me.  That what is most important is what God says and does.

I realize this is not always the case.  I can get consumed with what others think, how I can please them or help them and make them not be upset with me if they are.  This is really a waste of time, because human beings will always find something to be upset and angry about whether justifiably so or not.  If I have done all I know to be right, I cannot make others know that truth.  I can pray that they will, but if they choose not to see the truth for what it is and hurt me, I cannot make that my burden.  I was not made to please men, but God and God alone.

How difficult it can be to press on when the world is pressing on you.  God never lies, and he said he would be our strength, our comfort, our shield and defender.  He will never leave us.  No matter what others may do out of malice, jealousy or their own pain, they are not ours to heal.  They are God's. 

Although what we do to each other hurts God too, he makes it his personal mission to continue to work on us.  We are most important to him.  So, why do we give other people such power over us and resist surrender to him?  We put them in God's seat when they just don't fit.  This is one of my weaknesses. I pray to keep pressing on with only God in sight.  It's a journey that is worth the fight.