So I read a story this week that was so inspiring to me I have to share it with you! It was about this man - we will call him Moe - he was trying his best to be a good Christian, following all the instruction of God he knew of. Everything Moe did had God tied into it somehow, he was an amazing witness to people and tried his best to lead everyone he knew to God. Every decision that was made in Moe's life was only made after consulting with God. But Moe's family and friends were always trying to drag him down, always stubborn and Moe trying so hard to please God just made them feel convicted about their own lack of relationship with God and they resented both Moe and God.
Okay, so a pause here for a little mini-sermon: sometimes doing your best in any area of life brings haters and unfortunately that's even in your Christian walk... Sometimes people resent you because they feel convicted of their own lack through seeing your abundance. Sometimes people are just plain jealous and try to bring you down through talk and actions and if they can find a way to be in control of you or in authority of you in any way they will use it to try and squash you into some one a little less intimidating to them. BUT, God! God is on your side and if you are trying your best to please Him don't worry about the haters, keep your eyes up!
One time Moe's family and friends all got together and spoke so poorly against Moe that it god God's attention! God actually was so angered by this He told Moe about it and told Moe he would destroy all of the people who spoke against Moe! But Moe said no. Knowing the situation most likely would not change... Moe's friends and family would never know they had quite literally been saved by Moe so there would be no thankfulness to change their actions and thoughts toward Moe... Knowing all the awful things they were speaking and spreading about Moe and knowing others were believing it, Moe still protected them! Moe protected them because he knew that even though God was angry with them, they were God's creation and gift to Moe and he would not allow God to destroy the gift. God even tried to convince Moe by promising he would give him better friends and more family to replace the ones lost, God promised him more and better than what he had but still, Moe wouldn't concede.
I'm not sure what your thoughts on this are but it AMAZES me... I mean seriously, if someone is being an idiot to me and God says "Hey, I'm gonna take care of them for you! They're done." I'm most likely not going to say "oh, no, God that's not necessary... Let them continue talking about me, being mean and lording over me, don't worry about it." I'm going to be more like "sweet! You love me that much!? That's show 'em! And everyone else will have to be nice in the future because who's going to take a chance on the same fate becoming their own!? Nice!" And you would too so don't get super innocent on me now! haha!
The man in the story, his name isn't actually Moe, it's Moses... The story is found in Numbers 12-14. So now I've been thinking, what gifts should I be protecting that I'm not. See the thing is we are God's children and if someone is attacking us through word or deed it makes Him angry, He may not destroy them but He will stand up for you and the circumstances in their life will change for the worse... So, following the example of Moses what should we do... Maybe it's time to realize that people reap what they sow, if someone is sowing hatred it will eventually come back around anyway and instead of God wasting His time on avenging us and us wasting our prayer time asking Him to stand up for us we could be asking for a change in ourselves and more opportunity to make our City's better and to reach people! Take all of your complaining prayers and turn them into reaching prayers, imagine the difference!
If you think about it, God offered Moses a test, it was a heart check, priorities check... And Moses proved his heart to be only for God! Moses passed the test and showed God to be not only his top but his only priority even above his own wishes! And how that must have made God love Moses even more! See, we can have priorities and heart directed away from God because of things that we hate just as much as things we like... It's not only taking time away from God to play sports or watch TV that steals our relationship, it's taking time to just talk about how God should deal with the things we feel are against us... It's complaining to friends and family more than thanking God for the good... So now I ask you (and myself) what things are being given more time than God? They must be removed! What problems have more of my attention than God? They must become secondary! If we truly put God first and have a heart only for Him everything else will become so unimportant it ceases to matter!
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