The word of God is something alive and active:
it can judge secret emotions and thoughts. HEB 4:12
GENESIS 12:1-9
My Soul's Beloved,
I know how easy it is to make excuses, especially if one is ripe in years, not as strong as one used to be, and settled in one's ways. It was not so with Abraham. You called him. You invited him to take a leap of faith. You asked him to leave everything that was dear and familiar to him all his life. He had to say goodbye to his friends and relatives and step out in faith on the word of God and the promise of God. He believed that everything God said to him would be fulfilled. And his wife, Sarah, accompanied him, going where her husband was going and making just as great a sacrifice as he was in leaving her home and all that was dear and familiar to her.
How hard it is, Lord, to give up people, places, and things that have grown dear and familiar to us over time. And when the hour arrives to make painful decisions for different reasons, perhaps the decision is made even without our consent, and we are made to go where we do not wish to go. This can cause great suffering. But we must know this, Beloved, that You are present in all circumstances, and You can and will draw good from it all. The greater the surrender to Your will, the greater the blessings and peace we will enjoy.
The Lord said to Abram, ‘Leave your country, your family and your father’s house, for the land I will show you. I will make you a great nation; I will bless you and make your name so famous that it will be used as a blessing.
‘I will bless those who bless you:
I will curse those who slight you.
All the tribes of the earth
shall bless themselves by you.’
So Abram went as the Lord told him, and Lot went with him. Abram was seventy-five years old when he left Haran. Abram took his wife Sarai, his nephew Lot, all the possessions they had amassed and the people they had acquired in Haran. They set off for the land of Canaan, and arrived there.
Abram passed through the land as far as Shechem’s holy place, the Oak of Moreh. At that time the Canaanites were in the land. The Lord appeared to Abram and said, ‘It is to your descendants that I will give this land.’ So Abram built there an altar for the Lord who had appeared to him. From there he moved on to the mountainous district east of Bethel, where he pitched his tent, with Bethel to the west and Ai to the east. There he built an altar to the Lord and invoked the name of the Lord. Then Abram made his way stage by stage to the Negeb.
PSALM 32(33):12-13,18-20,22
Happy the people the Lord has chosen as his own.
The Lord said to Abram, ‘Leave your country, your family and your father’s house, for the land I will show you. I will make you a great nation; I will bless you and make your name so famous that it will be used as a blessing.
‘I will bless those who bless you:
I will curse those who slight you.
All the tribes of the earth
shall bless themselves by you.’
So Abram went as the Lord told him, and Lot went with him. Abram was seventy-five years old when he left Haran. Abram took his wife Sarai, his nephew Lot, all the possessions they had amassed and the people they had acquired in Haran. They set off for the land of Canaan, and arrived there.
Abram passed through the land as far as Shechem’s holy place, the Oak of Moreh. At that time the Canaanites were in the land. The Lord appeared to Abram and said, ‘It is to your descendants that I will give this land.’ So Abram built there an altar for the Lord who had appeared to him. From there he moved on to the mountainous district east of Bethel, where he pitched his tent, with Bethel to the west and Ai to the east. There he built an altar to the Lord and invoked the name of the Lord. Then Abram made his way stage by stage to the Negeb.
PSALM 32(33):12-13,18-20,22
Happy the people the Lord has chosen as his own.
They are happy, whose God is the Lord,
the people he has chosen as his own.
From the heavens the Lord looks forth,
he sees all the children of men.
the people he has chosen as his own.
From the heavens the Lord looks forth,
he sees all the children of men.
The Lord looks on those who revere him,
on those who hope in his love,
to rescue their souls from death,
to keep them alive in famine.
on those who hope in his love,
to rescue their souls from death,
to keep them alive in famine.
Our soul is waiting for the Lord.
The Lord is our help and our shield.
May your love be upon us, O Lord,
as we place all our hope in you.
May your love be upon us, O Lord,
as we place all our hope in you.
Happy the people the Lord has chosen as his own.
MATTHEW 7:1-5
My Soul's Beloved,
Most of us are so critical of everyone, especially those close to us. We want them to think as we do, act as we desire, and respond to circumstances as we would like them to. We have this overwhelming desire for control, but this is not love. Love allows the loved ones the freedom to be who they are, even if we do not agree with them, or it is the complete opposite of what we want or think is best for them.
Judging and criticizing come easily to us all; what is hard is to turn the light of truth on ourselves and discover that everything we want to change about others are the very faults we need to overcome in ourselves. The more self-aware I am, the less judgmental and critical I will be of others. The more I recognize my own flaws and imperfections, the more humble I will be. The more sincere I am in overcoming my own weaknesses, the more understanding, compassionate, and gentle I will be when I recognize these same weaknesses in others.
Help me, Lord, to never forget how much I have been forgiven, how gentle You are with me despite my many, many flaws and sins, and I will cease to be fault-finding and get busy about ridding myself of my weaknesses and imperfections, which are legion.
Jesus said to his disciples: ‘Do not judge, and you will not be judged; because the judgements you give are the judgements you will get, and the amount you measure out is the amount you will be given. Why do you observe the splinter in your brother’s eye and never notice the plank in your own? How dare you say to your brother, “Let me take the splinter out of your eye,” when all the time there is a plank in your own? Hypocrite! Take the plank out of your own eye first, and then you will see clearly enough to take the splinter out of your brother’s eye.’
No comments:
Post a Comment