So when we began this particular sacrifice, I had an opportunity to offer Him up a sacrifice of righteousness by being silent after feeling attacked and ridiculed by someone I love in front of someone I love. I failed in that test and the very thing I was teaching someone not to do, I DID!
This next opportunity to offer a sacrifice of righteousness involved the same principle but with a bit more depth, and while I wasn’t prepared for the circumstance to happen, I was prepared to step back before moving forward in deed and in words.
It’s kind of funny, because the very thing I had drawn my line about in this second circumstance, I was being tested in! God’s refining fire is so painfully brilliant at times it throws me to my face in humility and causes me to beg for the water of His Word. Yes, humility is a necessary pool to bathe in, especially as I prepare to go into the trenches with others who are struggling with hurts, habits and hang-ups. I must not forget where I came from and how I came to Who I came!
There are so many one-liner lessons in the two situations that have happened back to back in my journey, but the loudest one echoing in the nooks of my heart and gushing out into my whole being is found in 1st Peter 5:6: “Humble yourself before the mighty hand of God that He may exalt you in due time”: in other words, when I feel others have wronged me, I don’t need to be the teacher of the lesson I think they need to learn. The cost is too great! Think about it like this: When a fire starts, do I add a match, or walk away and thus let it go out?
I love what He promises in 1st Peter 5:7 when we do just that: “casting all your cares on Him for He cares for you.” After all, if I am a Christian who does not love the unlovable, then I am without the greatest gift, love which grows joy!
Oh, friends, He is so good to hold us accountable and I am not quite giggling as I realize He’s done just that: held me accountable to the very thing I had shared with this person on so many occasions in our friendship: Just because someone verbally slaps us with their perceptions, doesn’t give us permission to slap them back with ours. There is no unity in that. In fact, love is the framework for unity and truly listening adds shades of beauty to beautiful to describe but seldom seen. If all I am able to do is concentrate on defending what’s being said, then I am not focused with a heavenly perspective of unity. Rather, I have missed what’s not being said and forgotten about the One who will defend me when it’s all said and done.
Having a heavenly perspective in an earthly battle will keep us from stepping out of the bigger picture, which is unity in and for the Bride of Christ, the ultimate Kingdom of which we are headed. Oh, to be a kingdom builder and not a building destroyer.
Ask yourself: Can I agree to disagree, in love, for the greater good of Him?
I thought I would get into the cost of this sacrifice, but at the risk of staying on His platform longer than I am welcome, I will let you go. Thank you so much for joining me for our coffee hour and I truly pray that the lessons I am striving to learn will become preventative medicine to your soul and in your journey with Him!
We WILL wrap up this second sacrifice next week and then get to our October’s WOW!
In His grip,
Evinda
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