A True Friend Cares

                                              When The Door Slam           

"Consider your ways! 
You have sown much, and bring in little; 
You eat, but do not have enough; You drink, but you are not filled with drink;  
You clothe yourselves, but no one is warm; 
And he who earns wages, Earns wages to put into a bag with holes."    
                                                                                                                          Haggai 1:3-6 

       A true friend says what is good for us, not just what sound good. A good friend sometimes says the hard things because we need to hear them and make changes. A true friend cares enough to confront.

       The prophet Haggai passed on God's loving confrontive words to the people of Israel. God had earned the right to confront. Think about this: He was the Father of Israel and they were His children. He had supported them, provided for them, guided them, encouraged them. Now, however, in love He felt the need to confront them because of their choices.

       It seems the Israelites had taken up poor spending habits. They were living beyond their means. They were not planning or saving. Whatever they made in wages was immediately spent. Even though they were spending, eating, and drinking, it was never enough. They always wanted more, but gave nothing to God. 

       Our God is a caring God. He cares enough to confront. He will, through His Word, show us areas of our lives that need to change, just as He did with the children of Israel. Let The Lord God speak to you today through His Word and lovingly show you what you need to change. He loves you enough to confront  

Ask the Spirit to search your heart and reveal any areas of unconfessed sin. 
Acknowledge these to the Lord and thank Him for His forgiveness. 
           
                                                                                                                                           

Ways Of The World

                                               When The Door Slams

For all that is in the world; the lust of the flesh.                                                                      the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life;                                                                              is not of the Father but is of the world 
                                                                                              1 John 2:16


       Learning facts does not necessarily give one wisdom: This passage addresses the absolute futility of the human "rat race." We all struggle with it. We easily fall back into the rat race if we don't fight it with godly wisdom. 

       Everybody feels like a nobody sometime. Many of us devote time, energy, and money to prove to others that we are somebody. People ignore their children, cheat on their spouse, cheat in business, and generally ruin their lives to prove it, but they never find significance. 

       The ways we vainly try to prove our significance are known as the "ways of the world." Lust of the flesh implies illicit bodily appetites, including sexual, food, and chemical addictions. Lust of the eyes is the temptation of materialism. the Greek phrase for the pride of life literally means "the pretension of human life," pride, arrogance, ostentatious behavior, trying to control others.

       Even if the ways of the world worked, they would be immoral and wrong. God says they can never fill the void in our souls. Only faith in Christ, and pursing intimacy with Him and loving believers, can fill those vacuums and bring meaning to our lives. Only looking at ourselves the way God looks at us-as children who are in process of being perfected in Christ-can bring true feelings of significance. Jesus is the answer. 

May my God grant us the wisdom to devote our energy to real understanding of God and loving people-rather than the ways of the world.

Ask the Spirit to search your heart and reveal any areas of unconfessed sin.                      Acknowledge these to the Lord and thank Him for His forgiveness.