Three Things to Watch Out For

My Utmost For His Highest

 

‘Beware of “the cares of this world . . .” (Mark 4:19). They are the very things that produce the wrong attitudes in our soul. It is incredible what enormous power there is in simple things to distract our attention away from God. Refuse to be swamped by “the cares of this world.”

 

Another thing that distracts us is our passion for vindication. St. Augustine prayed, “O Lord, deliver me from this lust of always vindicating myself.” Such a need for constant vindication destroys our soul’s faith in God. Don’t say, “I must explain myself,” or, “I must get people to understand.” Our Lord never explained anything— He left the misunderstandings or misconceptions of others to correct themselves.

 

When we discern that other people are not growing spiritually and allow that discernment to turn to criticism, we block our fellowship with God. God never gives us discernment so that we may criticize, but that we may intercede.’ CHAMBERS

 

Three things that we need to watch out for.  1) The cares of this world that can consume us.  They can cause us to lose our spiritual focus.  They give us a spiritual ‘panic attack’. Sometimes we find ourselves in difficulties because we have made choices that satisfy our flesh, for a moment .. but result in stress and spiritual failure.  Things don’t go our way so we ‘make something happen’  which blows up in our face and we end up with even more problems than we started with. All the while wondering how we are going to ‘fix’ it.  That is not the life the Lord intended for us.

 

2) We do not need to justify ourselves before men.  If the Lord leads you to a place that others do not understand .. something they cannot reason their way through to understanding .. it is possible that the reason is that they are trying to use human wisdom to comprehend something that God is doing through you.  In John 10, the people were seeing and hearing the Messiah and prophecy fulfilled in front of them, but they refused to see it .. in this case because they were not His sheep … in the case of other Christians … it might be that the Lord has not given them understanding … what I am going to say can put you on a slippery slope … just because people don’t understand does not mean that God is not directing your steps.  There are some things about me that people may see as extreme, but I believe it is clearly discernment from God.  I should not try to vindicate myself before others, but follow God.  The slippery slope part is that you must be certain that it is God and not some notion that your flesh has given birth to … if that is the case, it will neither glorify God nor result in any good thing

 

3) One of the concerns I have about writing this BLOG is that people might think I am being judgmental or unduly critical.  When in fact, my purpose is to be like a lighthouse .. warning you away from the rocks … an encourager .. to move you from where you are to where God would have you be.  The difference between criticism and encouragement is not the issue that is addressed … it is the motivation behind what you are told about that issue.  In the one case, criticism, the motivation is to tear down, demean, discourage, to judge. On the other hand .. the encourager intends to take you from where you are to a higher place .. closer to God …  That is not to say that the Spirit will not convict you  and use that conviction to redirect you.

 

Christian .. you are not of this world any more than Jesus was of this world.  You are sanctified by the Spirit of God and heaven bound.  Walk in that truth.

 

Bondye Beni Ou (God Bless You)