"If thou faint in the day of adversity, thy strength is small. If thou forbear to deliver them that are drawn to death, and those that are ready to be slain; If thou sayest, Behold, we knew it not; doth not he that pondereth the heart consider it? and he that keepeth thy soul, doth not he know it? and shall not he render to every man according to his works?"
So, in other words... If I know someone who needs my help, and I refuse it because I'm scared of adversity, God's going to take that into account the next time I ask Him for help. That's a sobering thought considering that I ask God for help more than I help others. When we get to Heaven we will be judged. Not on the things we did wrong, that's forgiven. But we will be judged on the right things we should've done but didn't. So many times in my life, I've been afraid to ask someone if they needed help. Isn't that crazy? My prideful shyness is what has kept me from helping others. It's not that I don't desire to help... I'm just too shy to ask.
Not that this is an excuse, but I think that part of the reason I'm so afraid to help is because when others find out how much I truly want to help, they kind of think that I'm strange or something. I shouldn't care so much what others think of me but that's a whole other story. This is one area where other types of churches have put ones like mine to shame unfortunately. Because churches like mine believe that salvation is eternal and can never be lost, we have a tendency to put good works to the side. But as Christians we are called to help those is need. The Bible says that faith without works is dead. God uses our good works to minister to others. How alive is our faith? Do we help others when it is hard or only when it is convenient?
What if you felt God asking you to give someone $20 to a person or a good cause? For some people it would be no problem. But what about those of us that it would be harder for? What if that $20 was going to be used for something else? Not something extra like going to a movie. What if it was going to be used for something like groceries? What if giving that $20 meant you were only going to have $30 for groceries instead of $50 that week? Would you still give it? Unfortunately, most of us wouldn't have enough faith in God to provide for us. Now I'm not talking about taking all the money that God has allowed you to earn and always giving it away. You have to provide for your family and that's why God gives us jobs. But every once in awhile God might ask you to do something that requires some faith to believe that things are not going to turn out the way they normally would. Every once in awhile, we ask God to make something turn out different than it normally would. Remember, God will take into account how many times you had the faith to believe He could do it.
This is the prayer God has given me for this year and it's not an easy one. "God, give me true compassion for someone. Show me someone who needs my help in a way that will truly inconvenience my life and require me to have faith in only You to make it all work out." That's a mouthful. But it's what I'm commanded to do. Matt 22:39. This is a prayer that shouldn't be prayed lightly, because the journey ahead will not be an easy one. But I mean it and I'm ready! I want my faith and compassion for others to grow in 2012 so that I can be better able to serve God with all my HEART, soul, and mind. I need prayer for this journey. Prayer that God will give me wisdom and discernment to see the person, or people, that He is going to bring into my life. And please pray that my shyness doesn't get in the way of me asking if they need help! Thanks for reading! Until next time,
Cass
No comments:
Post a Comment