A Moment To Praise 7.12.21
Joyce Lochinger, Gravel Hill Worship Leader
Where To Start
So many times, we hear Christians ask the question, “What’s becoming of this world we live in?” You can almost guarantee that when a group of believers get together, you will hear a lot more complaining about things and people and a lot less praising God for His many blessings in our lives. It’s human nature. How often have you heard a well-meaning person say, “We need a revival in this world!” My response to that comment is, “Would you care to give a guess where that needs to start?”
Do you know where that needs to start? I can tell you where it doesn’t start. It doesn’t start with a demand from our church boards, nor with our government, not even with our pastors. It needs to start within our own hearts! Your heart and mine. If everyone worked on their own heart, we would have a revival before anyone knew what hit them! Once we all work on our own lives, our own flaws, our own shortcomings, then the rest will naturally follow.
How To Begin
How do we do that, you might ask? I hate to break the bad news to you, but it starts with you taking a close personal look at yourself and assessing if you are acting Christlike in everything that you do. Now of course we are not always going to hit the mark on this, but we have to at least try. We can’t continue to find fault with one another and then say we have tried when we clearly haven’t. We can’t continue to talk negatively and spread rumors about one another and claim that they aren’t hurtful or that we didn’t’ mean anything by them. We can’t claim that people are too sensitive when we clearly did not try to stop our hurtful conversations.
We can’t continue to find mistakes that other Christians make, point them out, and then feel better about ourselves because we aren’t like them. When any of those things happen to you, it doesn’t feel so great. We shouldn’t be doing that to others. Scripture tells us to be kind to one another and build each other up, not tear each other down. Scripture also reminds us to stop looking at the splinter in our neighbor’s eye when there is a plank in our own. There is another story from scripture that is even more to the point about our tendencies to judge, discourage, and treat others poorly. Read this in Matthew.
A Moment To Praise 7.12.21 in Scripture
| Bible Gateway passage: Matthew 18:21-35 – New International Version
The Parable of the Unmerciful Servant – Then Peter came to Jesus and asked, “Lord, how many times shall I forgive my brother or sister who sins against me? Up to seven times?” Jesus answered, “I tell you, not seven times, but seventy-seven times. “Therefore, the kingdom of heaven is like a king who wanted to settle accounts with his servants. As he began the settlement, a man who owed him ten thousand bags of gold was brought to him. Since he was not able to pay, the master ordered that he and his wife and his children and all that he had be sold to repay the debt. |
After reading that, we all should feel a little ashamed for the way we act toward one another. Remember that Christ paid the largest debt ever for our salvation. He showed us mercy when we didn’t deserve it. He gave us grace upon grace when we didn’t even ask for it. And He gave us salvation, even though he knew that we would make mistakes and be imperfect. Shouldn’t we do the same for others?
Please think about the way you offer mercy, grace, and forgiveness. Assess who you are and how you treat others. Do you affirm all who are working for the kingdom or only the people you like? Perhaps you will allow God to change your heart and then you will see that, while there is a need for a revival, it must start with you and me first!
A Moment To Praise 7.12.21 in Song
This song is a bit of a different style of song – but the words are so good. Listen closely!
| You Don’t Love God If You Don’t Love Your Neighbor
A special song to serve as a reminder of uniting in love and peace! God Bless our World! NEW song from “All The Rage” Rhonda Vincent & The Rage coming soon … |
Have a great week!!!
Joyce
