What does this mean to you? Or what do you hear if it speaks to you? It was the topic of our church sermon yesterday. My husband and I rushed in to service a tad late, and when I grabbed a bulletin by the door, I almost froze - partly in fear, partly in excitement. The title of the new series: Hypocrite. Living an Authentic Faith. Wow-ee. Let me add that part of the reason we were late was b/c I met a friend that went to early service to give her something, and we chatted a bit. She told me that it was a good series, so I was looking forward to it. Little did I know what I was in for! So as we settled in, our pastor had just begun, with the scripture of James 1. We came in on hearing that the key to joy is suffering. It has a purpose, and we don't see it right away. I surely don't. It may be the second or fifth thing I think while I may be going through something. Like learning patience. When my husband & I decided to put our condo up for a short sale, we didn't realize how long the process would take. It was about a year, I believe. Oh my goodness!! We were unhappy there presently, and then to have to wait until who knows when for the short sale process to go through... Good grief! We soon agreed that while God would bless us in this somehow, He had to be teaching us patience. For what, we did not know. Nor did we really care to know a specific reason, but there was a lesson in this "suffering" if you will. I sometimes wonder if it was to help us deal w/the miscarriage and waiting for a baby. B/c when that happened, we were already prepped with the thought, "He'll bless us again; something's going to come of this, we just can't put our finger[s] on it now." How funny though, that now we are in the process of house hunting, and have fallen in love with a house that's a short sale!! Yes, you read that correctly. Another short sale. Being on the other end of it, as the buyer, we are prepared to wait this out, b/c we love the house. (I spent almost all of my free time yesterday "pinning" house decorations, diy's, etc for this house that doesn't even belong to me! I told my husband that I was doing it, and must get offline! He laughed and told me to stop!! teehee)
Anyway, back to suffering and it's purpose... What are we instructed to do while we are in the midst of suffering? Pray! But not just for ourselves, but really for others. It's to teach us humility. I want to look at this more, and maybe watch the sermon online when it's posted (www.ccontheweb.com) b/c there was so much of this point. My goodness, the whole sermon had a ton of things that I was excited to study. Our pastor told us that the definition of humility is "giving all we can, so that others can have all they need." What is it that they need? Jesus. He is all they need, all WE need. The best part of being authentic, is so that we are not hypocrites. Man, I need some work here! A hypocrite is someone that pretends to be someone they are not. It's sort of a chain reaction. When we start thinking ill thoughts, they turn into words, leading to actions which show our character (be it real or not...), eventually leading to our destiny. Another way my pastor illustrated it was desire leads to deception, to design (plotting to have what you're wanting so badly - a relationship, wealth, drugs, etc), to disobedience to death. So true!! I think if one gets caught up on being someone they are not - trying to fit in, participating in things that don't glorify God, talking in a way that is ugly, we eventually can turn into that person. It has been made clear to me that I have gone through this very thing. Be it the crowd that you run with, people you work closely with, things you listen to/watch, but I started to change. My mother pointed it out and I was in denial for a bit, especially since she told me. Come on, it's my mama. I told her, "whatever." But then I noticed. Even my thoughts of what was appropriate and what was not seemed to have changed. Of course I didn't notice it for a couple of years later, but when I did, it hit me like a hammer! I can now say, now that it's behind me, that I am so thankful my mama did point this out!
I'll close w/one last profound thought: when God looks at us, He sees Jesus. When we look in the mirror, do we see Jesus? The words of the Bible are to be a mirror for us. How does it match up to myself? What do I need to do to see that? When my behavior doesn't match up I may not believe that I'm who I am supposed to be. So it's time to let my faith be real; to be authentic. This series really couldn't come at a more appropriate time, when I am craving this sort of authenticity. We're all hypocritical at times, and my prayer is that I am cutting that out of my life as best I can. I pray that people who read this, especially those that live near me will be watching me, and lifting me up, as I will them. If I live my life knowing that people are watching my every move, I need to be on point. It's not going to be easy, but it's possible. With a little- er - LOT of help from God. I can't wait to hear next week's sermon!
James 1:2-4
"Consider it pure joy, my brothers and sisters, whenever you face trials of many kinds, because you know that the testing of your faith produces perseverance. Let perseverance finish its work so that you may be mature and complete, not lacking anything."
xoxo
No comments:
Post a Comment