Tired; I was awakened last night
with a call to pray for an unknown family that recently lost a young daughter;
hearing the crying and the seeing the hand of a woman stroking a small black
velvet dress, with a white collar, that had belonged to her.
I don’t say this is a vision,
just the Holy Spirit making me aware that someone was in need of His love and
telling me to pray for them.
I am reminded that in many homes
this day there are people tortured by death, by poverty, by hunger, by fear –
even fear of some of their own family - by the need for the Holy Spirit to
comfort them. Their need for Christ in
their lives to heal the heart and calm the soul.
And, even as I write, I keep
seeing that hand stroking a black velvet dress, with a white collar, belonging
to a child who has passed away.
Ephesians 5:19-20 19
Speaking to yourselves in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing
and making melody in your heart to the Lord;
20 Giving thanks always for
all things unto God and the Father in the name of our Lord Jesus
Christ; KJV from
Biblegateway.com
Through the years I have taken
classes that, in part, encourage us to lift ourselves up by telling ourselves
that we are ‘good,’ that we are ‘worthy of success’ and many other such
‘inspiring comments’ – to help built up self-esteem.
Self-esteem; “we must have good
self-worth,” they say in order to be better at what we do.
Not the best idea and when taken
to extremes – as it is in today’s society – it can be devastating, not
uplifting. The world chants this mantra
and in order to ‘help’ those that are too lazy to do better, are not willing to
sacrifice their time and effort to learn, it tells them how great they are –
even when their work is substandard and mediocre.
We have raised a generation of
whiners because they think that they are entitled to anything they wish. They don’t want to work, they only want to
satisfy their wants and believe because they exist they deserve it.
They are not challenged to do
better, just feel good about yourself and that will take care of
everything. God has been left out of the
equation – it only matters what you think and what you want, as long as you
don’t have to work for it.
To be sure, not all are like
this - many strive to do the best job they can do at whatever their tasks, they
have ‘self-esteem’ because they have earned it.
But those that would give false
encouragement to the lazy, demean or at least refuse to acknowledge the worth of
THESE people and even try and discourage them so they don’t show up the
others.
I realize that there are those
that need encouragement for a short time, they have had difficulties that are
almost too much for them to bare – yet chanting a feel good quote isn’t the
answer.
Rather than telling ourselves
how great we are, rather than trying to form a good attitude by the use of
slogans and chants, we should look to the Psalms, look to the songs and choruses
that praise God. And then sing them,
loudly if you wish and God doesn’t care if you can carry a tune or not, just
sing and praise Him.
These things lift us up, our
spirit communes with the Holy Spirit and we are raised up as we meet with
God. We don’t need to have self-worth as
described by the world; we are already heavily valued by the only one that
counts, God.
He placed such a high value on
us that He gave His only Son, bought us with His blood, that we might have life,
eternally, with Him.
When we start telling ourselves
how important we are, how wonderful we are, how great we are, we end up focusing
on us, not on God. We then find
ourselves drifting away from Him.
Singing His praises help us to
put into perspective who we are, we don’t need self-praises when we praise God,
we receive from Him a spirit of well-being, of love and care – of
‘self-esteem.’
When we focus on the things He
has done for us, when we look around and see Him in everything – understanding
that it is by Him that man can create things, then we don’t worry about
self-worth. We don’t concern ourselves
with telling ourselves how magnificent we are, because He becomes the reason for
our existence; we are who we are, because God is who He is – and we are His.
Later, Art :-)
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