You’re not supposed to ask, “Am I pretty?”or say, “I’m really hot!”Don’t take the last piece of chicken on the plate OR the last brownie. Don’t gawk at people in a public place, even Wal-Mart, they have a right to dress that way, or be with that person. If you don’t like it, don’t look! If you go to someone’s house for dinner, don’t stay until they are yawning openly in your face, and if you call a friend don’t start spilling the contents of your brain until you have asked “is this a convenient time?”
That was a nice list of “do not’s“!
We are so used to be being told what we cannot do that sometimes we forget there is a positive side to this life. We grow up afraid someone will think that we think too highly of ourselves until we begin to think we aren’t worth very much.
We read the promises in the Word and think they would have to be for someone else because we just aren’t good enough!
God gives us promises like “Fear not, I am with you, be not dismayed (upset) for I am your God”Isaiah 41:10
In this verse we see He loved us greatly! Romans 5:8 But God showed his great love for us by sending Christ to die for us while we were still sinners.
The declaration of love I read the most is Romans 8:35-38 Can anything ever separate us from Christ’s love? Does it mean he no longer loves us if we have trouble or calamity, or are persecuted, or hungry, or destitute, or in danger, or threatened with death? No, despite all these things, overwhelming victory is ours through Christ, who loved us. And I am convinced that nothing can ever separate us from God’s love. Neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither our fears for today nor our worries about tomorrow—not even the powers of hell can separate us from God’s love.I say if that doesn’t make you sit up and take notice I don’t know what will. Jesus told us “Ask and it will be given to you; seek and you will find; knock and the door will be opened to you. Matthew 7:7
A line in a song from the “Sound of Music” says, “Somewhere in my youth or childhood, I must have done something good”, indicating she didn’t feel worthy of finding such a great love. None of us are worthy, we are all sinners saved by grace and you have the right to every promise and all the love of God contained in the Word!
Jesus told us some ways to be blessed, they are listed in Matthew 5:3-11 You can read them and it gives you a pretty good plan of what to do, but the last one, V 11-12, is the one I want to underline here: “Blessed are you when people insult you, persecute you and falsely say all kinds of evil against you because of me. Rejoice and be glad, because great is your reward in heaven, for in the same way they persecuted the prophets who were before you.”
I’ve heard stories about persecution, from Armenian martyrs to my grandfather Paulk being persecuted for preaching about the Holy Spirit, in South Georgia!
Are they more blessed than we, who sit on comfortable pews because of their sacrifice?
Hebrews 11:39-40 These were all commended for their faith, yet none of them received what had been promised, since God had planned something better for us so that only together with us would they be made perfect.
Are they saying, “You complete me”?
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