Negative to Positive

I was ready to smack her I thought. I haven't had the urge to smack someone in public ever. Yes, this lady really got under my skin, but my reaction was "out of character." I recognized that I was offended, so I quickly excused myself and started praying.

So where were all these negative emotions coming from, you ask? Her digging into my husband's employment status and especially her cliches. When she said, "And God will look after him, if he's trusting in Him." really got me revved up. This is a lady who is well looked after, with no financial struggles and she has the nerve to say something that insensitive! At least preface that kind of statement with, "God looked after me when.... so I know He'll look after you now."

You have got to shake your head at some people. "Lord I forgive her. Help her to be more considerate of people's feelings. Lord help me to be more considerate of people's feelings and not "come across" as insensitive. Amen." I recognize that "spirit of offense" that operates around her now.

What got me upset was the "works mentality" she confessed. God will look after my husband because God loves him, not because my husband is doing good works, so he deserves looking after. All any of us deserve is Hell, but because the Father loved us so much, He sent His Son to take our sin upon himself and redeem us. (see Titus 2:12) "We were bought with a price." ( 1Cor 6:20) We are not our own.

We are not saved by grace and kept by law or works. No, No, No. The whole letter to the Galatians was written to address this problem. The whole deal, from start to finish is grace. "I do not frustrate the grace of God: for if righteousness [come] by the law, then Christ is dead in vain. " (Gal 2:21)

My husband is looking to Jesus, not to himself for help and direction. All, I repeat "all our righteousness (self effort) is as filthy rags", to God.(Isa 64:6) We do not do to get, we do because we have been touched by so much love, in Jesus, that we want to share it. Our motivation has been changed by the lover of our souls -- Jesus. Does that mean we just sit around and wait for pie in the sky? No, it means we ask Him every day, "What would you have me do and say today Lord?" That is submitting your will and desires to the Lord.

Even the world has the belief system, "do good, get good" and "do bad, get bad." There is no miracle in believing that. But when we get good for all our bad --that's a miracle. That is grace. We exchange all our efforts for Jesus' finished work on the cross and God declares us, "NOT GUILTY!" That is a miracle.

If for some reason we don't get looked after I would not blame God. He is love and He can't change. Sometimes when the pressure is on, people will jump and make hasty decisions. I know I have missed God's voice plenty of times and got the resulting mess. That is not God's fault. He has given us all free will. He can turn all our bad mistakes to good if we will allow Him to, it just might take a bit of time. Like someone once told me, we all have a destiny and God can get us back on track whenever we turn to Him, so that we get to the important junctions in our lives at the right time. It's our choice whether we arrive at these junctions smelling like roses or barnyard stuff.

Blessing and provision have got a lot to do with what we believe. If we believe we are blessed and highly favored, we will be. If we believe that God's deserted us and bad things are coming, then bad things will come. (See Prov 23:7) Look at Joseph. It didn't matter where he ended up he brought God's blessing with him because he believed he was Abraham's seed and thus blessed. A real good question to ask is, "What do I believe?" We can determine what we believe by what we say, especially when we are under pressure. Truly, by our words we are justified and by our words we are condemned. (Matt 12:37)

Someone told me once that demons are attracted to voiced negative emotions the way sharks are attracted to blood in the water. The louder the negative emotions we give voice to, the more demons we attract spiritually. Guess what? I have been a lot more careful about what I give vent to lately. LOL

Finally, in these troubled times, God gave me some verses to meditate on and claim that I will share with you, to encourage you. The first one is, "I have been young, and [now] am old; yet have I not seen the righteous forsaken, nor his seed begging bread." (Psalm 37:25)
The second is Psalm 112...
"1Praise ye the LORD. Blessed [is] the man [that] feareth the LORD, [that] delighteth greatly in his commandments. 2His seed shall be mighty upon earth: the generation of the upright shall be blessed. 3Wealth and riches [shall be] in his house: and his righteousness endureth for ever. 4Unto the upright there ariseth light in the darkness: [he is] gracious, and full of compassion, and righteous 5A good man sheweth favour, and lendeth: he will guide his affairs with discretion. 6Surely he shall not be moved for ever: the righteous shall be in everlasting remembrance. 7He shall not be afraid of evil tidings: his heart is fixed, trusting in the LORD. 8His heart [is] established, he shall not be afraid, until he see [his desire] upon his enemies. 9He hath dispersed, he hath given to the poor; his righteousness endureth for ever; his horn shall be exalted with honour. 10The wicked shall see [it], and be grieved; he shall gnash with his teeth, and melt away: the desire of the wicked shall perish."

Thanks for reading. I feel much better now.
Big hugs and blessings,
Brenda Gale