Here is the mixed bag of lessons He's given me lately. Some are from Him for me, and others are what I see going on around me.
1. You can have conviction, but it should always be rooted in love. Love is the foundation for any good quality you want to have {all in aligning our character to His (Romans 12:2)}.
{Humility, gentleness, patience, kindness, compassion, and friendliness.}
Not to mention the other fruits of the Spirit found in Galatians 5:22-23.
Conviction/Passion is never an excuse to be a jerk about what you believe, even inadvertantly. Think of who has been entrusted to you, and of just how much Jesus loved His church. This will motivate us to love {and will naturally smooth out any rough edges}.
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| Ephesians 4:2-3 |
2. Flattery is not the same as encouragement. Be careful with your words, even the seemingly good ones, because above everything else, you're speaking to someone's heart.
3. Sometimes we say completely stupid and untrue things, and when we're cringing and shaking our heads later on, it seems like it's easier to be forgiven by others for our faults {or to forgive others for theirs} than to forgive ourselves. Forgive yourself. Forgive yourself and move forward, or our faith is a lie.
4. Be careful and protect your heart when it comes to dating - when they say they like you, or you think you like them, remember - Jesus is your first love. I can say this with authority, because I've failed {and then grown, and continue to grow} in allowing Jesus to be the absolute core of my life. Everything should stem from and flow out of the idea that Jesus is your first love, the center, or core of your life. So it goes: Jesus, then romantic interest/future spouse, then friends, then career/aspirations/dreams/goals, etc. The order may look different for each person, but pay attention to who/what takes up the first spot.
5. Along with #4, sometimes they don't like you. They just like that you like them.
6. Lie: you are alone in your battle.
"No test or temptation that comes your way is beyond the course of what others have had to face. All you need to remember is that God will never let you down; he’ll never let you be pushed past your limit; he’ll always be there to help you come through it." - - 1 Corinthians 10:13, Message
"Keep your guard up. You're not the only ones plunged into these hard times. It's the same with Christians all over the world. So keep a firm grip on the faith." - - 1 Peter 5:9, Message
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| "Your grace is a dream I cannot shake/taste and see/it's sweeter than anything" |
7. Lie: you can't be used by God because of your past, your sins, or your present battle.
"Take a good look, friends, at who you were when you got called into this life. I don’t see many of “the brightest and the best” among you, not many influential, not many from high-society families. Isn't it obvious that God deliberately chose men and women that the culture overlooks and exploits and abuses, chose these “nobodies” to expose the hollow pretensions of the “somebodies”? That makes it quite clear that none of you can get by with blowing your own horn before God. Everything that we have—right thinking and right living, a clean slate and a fresh start—comes from God by way of Jesus Christ...” - - 1 Corinthians 1:27-31, Message
"Because of the extravagance of those revelations, and so I wouldn’t get a big head, I was given the gift of a handicap to keep me in constant touch with my limitations. Satan’s angel did his best to get me down; what he in fact did was push me to my knees. No danger then of walking around high and mighty! At first I didn’t think of it as a gift, and begged God to remove it. Three times I did that, and then he told me,
My grace is enough; it’s all you need.
My strength comes into its own in your weakness.
Once I heard that, I was glad to let it happen. I quit focusing on the handicap and began appreciating the gift. It was a case of Christ’s strength moving in on my weakness. Now I take limitations in stride, and with good cheer, these limitations that cut me down to size—abuse, accidents, opposition, bad breaks. I just let Christ take over! And so the weaker I get, the stronger I become."
- - 2 Corinthians 12:7-10, Message
8. Pray for any lie, deceit, or hypocrisy in you, as a leader, as a teacher, as a parent, as a brother... to be exposed and then annihilated. I'm praying this presently, and He's answering me. The answers strip down and reveal just how deep my depravity runs. Deeper still, I see my need for Jesus, and at the bottom, a vast endless sea of steadfast love.