As I read in chapter 24 about how to treat the poor, I think about a woman who came into the church yesterday and asked for money so she could drive to the hospital to see her mother. Immediately I mentally started assessing her appearance and car to see if I thought she was being honest. It is such a hard thing to know when to just use mercy and when to be wise and use good stewardship. This time I decided to trust my heart over my head, and I gave her $20. But I confess that my mind's first direction was skepticism: "Was she just making the rounds of the local churches?"
What did I learn from chapter 25? If your husband is fighting with another man, watch where you grab him.
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Great comment Beth. It is so hard to know the difference between trusting God with the results of our actions and discerning. Do you just serve Him and then let Him handle the woman in your example or do you make a human decision?
ReplyDeleteI also found it interesting in chapter 26 where they were telling thier story of what God has done for them, so that they would not forget. It made me think about my story. It is so easy to look at your daily life and see only a little amount of growth. When I am able to reflect on my entire life and all that God has done for me and brought me thru, it is truly incredible. It is important that we remember where we came from, what God has done, and what He promises. It would be fun to get together and all share our stories some time. God has done amazing things and it is our job to remember and share those with others.
Excellent! We can be so short sighted, both with our pasts and our futures. I think our sin nature not only makes us "me focused", but it makes us "now focused". We can lose sight about how far we have come and we lose sight of the prize at the end. It becomes all about the details that I am caught up in at the moment.
ReplyDeleteI also think the enemy loves to have us think that spiritual steps in our past were really not that significant. We second guess as to whether God was really involved at all sometimes.