Skip to main content

Make a Decision


          To fear the Lord is to hate evil; I hate pride and arrogance, evil behavior and perverse speech. (Proverbs 8:13)

          Pride goes before destruction, a haughty spirit before a fall. (Proverbs 16:18)

          The greedy stir up conflict, but those who trust in the Lord will prosper. (Proverbs 28:25)

          One of the complaints I hear is about the sense of entitlement that young folks today have. Now, my first response to this is that every generation is attacked by the generations that came before it as being useless, foolish, indulged, and evil. And each new generation looks back at the generations that have gone before and sees uselessness, foolishness, indulgence, and evil.
          Scripture doesn’t blame one generation or another. We’re all selfish. We are all prideful. We are all greedy, and those three are all probably facets of the same sin. We would be like the Most High. We want to be God, determining our own reality. That’s pride. We want our vision of how things should be to prevail. We think “right” is (or at least should be) what we declare to be right, and that includes our getting all we think we deserve. We think that we should be granted the same level of privilege (or more) as that other person over there (whoever that might be.) That’s greed. Both are entitlement.
           Even those who claim they want God to be on the throne of their lives tend to be like Cathleen in this video: Cathleen. But it’s obvious that pride, greed, and entitlement all lead to “…make a decision…You just did.”
          The belt of truth, the breastplate of righteousness, and the sword of the Spirit seem to be the weapons most useful in fighting these battles. It comes to mind that in selecting a few from the list, we might reach the conclusion that they aren’t all needed each time. That’s not true. We always need all of them, but accepting the truth that we are not God, accepting the fact that we are limited, and that we should not get all that we want seems key. Doing the good that we can with what’s available, and looking to the Word to find out what the good we can do includes as well as what the evil that we should not do includes also seem great places to start.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Higher Thoughts

  “For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways,” declares the  Lord . “As the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts. (Isaiah 55:8-9)           The person with the Spirit makes judgments about all things, but such a person is not subject to merely human judgments,   for, “Who has known the mind of the Lord      so as to instruct him?” But we have the mind of Christ. (I Corinthians 2:15-16) If you read about the ancient gods of the various peoples, you’ll find that they think just like people. In fact, they think just like the sort of people we really wouldn’t want to be around. They think like the most corrupt Hollywood producer or, like hormone overloaded teens with no upbringing.   It’s embarrassing to read. I have a friend who argues that because God is not just like us, He is so vastly dif...
2 comments
Read more

A Virgin?

           Therefore the Lord himself will give you a sign: The virgin will be with child and will give birth to a son, and will call him Immanuel. (Isaiah 7:14)           This is how the birth of Jesus Christ came about: His mother Mary was pledged to be married to Joseph, but before they came together, she was found to be with child through the Holy Spirit. (Matthew 1:18)           But the angel said to her, “Do not be afraid, Mary, you have found favor with God. You will be with child and give birth to a son, and you are to give him the name Jesus. He will be great and will be called the Son of the Most High. The Lord God will give him the throne of his father David, and he will reign over the house of Jacob forever; his kingdom will never end.”            “How will this be,” Mary asked the...
Post a Comment
Read more

Saved?

  I give them eternal life, and they shall never perish; no one will snatch them out of my hand. My Father, who has given them to me, is greater than all; no one can snatch them out of my Father’s hand. I and the Father are one.” (John 10:28-30) “Not everyone who says to me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but only the one who does the will of my Father who is in heaven. Many will say to me on that day, ‘Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name and in your name drive out demons and in your name perform many miracles?’ Then I will tell them plainly, “I never knew you. Away from me, you evildoers!’ ” (Matthew 7:21-23) Not at all! Let God be true, and every human being a liar. As it is written: “So that you may be proved right when you speak and prevail when you judge.” (Romans 3:4)   What conclusion do you draw when someone who was raised in a Christian family and church, perhaps even playing a significant role in a chur...
Post a Comment
Read more