God has really been laying this on my heart in the past few weeks. Reading through some Proverbs has opened up my eyes to a lot of different things regarding how to relate to others. I desire to be living in a constant state of receptivity, to God and to others. This state of mind, soul, and spirit can only come from humbly submitting myself to God first and foremost, in all things. If I am not coming to Him in humility, recognizing that every day, He loves me, not because of what I do but because of Jesus, I am not putting myself in a place to receive the fullness of love, blessing and favor He desires to have me operate in. If I do not get on my knees before God, not begging for things, but realizing the truth that I cannot be with Him without Jesus and THANKING Him for that, then I will not receive. Jesus says, "Come to me, and I will give you rest." I have to make the conscious decision to come to Him, recognizing my need for Him and what He has for me before I can receive. It just amazes me that God loves me and is committed to faithfully blessing me when I come to Him. Thanks Jesus! Proverbs 22:4 says "Humility is the fear of the LORD; its wages are riches and honor and life." Ok, so first I must be humble before the Lord and it says here that I will be paid in riches, honor, and life. The fruit of my proper fear of the Lord is honor which I must then give to those around me. This is SO MUCH HARDER because God does not hurt me. God is committed to me. God loves me. He promotes me, exactly where I am. But, people most definitely can hurt me, especially those closest to my heart. Especially those that know me well. But, I must be in a constant state of receptivity to those around me. I have to come to the realization that I do not know everything, and that I could learn things from each person I come in contact with. I believe that every person in my life is divinely appointed to be there. God is not unintentional, that is for sure. So, I must be willing to let go of my pride, recognize my need for growth and receive from those God has placed around me, especially those in higher authority. It's interesting, being in this position of leadership has shown me just how much I need to learn and grow. It's awesome. I desire to learn and I totally welcome the advice, feedback, correction people may have. It gets so tricky though, when there is hurt involved. There are times when I completely disregard correction and advice from those who have hurt me. When I do that, I am actually keeping record of a wrong which is the total opposite of love. It is also difficult when the exhortation or advice is given harshly, without grace and love. That SUCKS. Even if they are right on with their words, the wrong attitude and heart behind it makes it SO hard to receive. In those moments, I have to choose to either let myself go and have grace or be totally offended and seek to make it known how awful they were to me. The latter is so much more attractive sometimes. What is better? Even if I am hurt in the moment, swallowing the pride, taking the correction, then releasing it to the Lord is the higher road. Later, in a right state of mind and heart, I could come back to the person and honestly share how they could have given their words in a more tactful, loving way because it actually hurt. This is reconciliation. The other way is revenge. Proverbs 13:10 says, " "Where there is strife, there is pride, but wisdom is found in those who take advice." Strife comes when we do not receive, when we decide to let our pride get the best of us and harden our hearts and close our ears to correction.
Pride will also keep us from being real with each other. So often, when someone wrongs me or offends me, I just take it. Sometimes, letting things roll off is good. However, there are times when there is a bigger hurt that I do not voice. SO TERRIBLE. Letting things fester for too long is a perfectly devious recipe for utter disaster and disunity. When someone wrongs me in some way, it is imperative for me to tell them. If I do not, Satan will INSTANTLY take that feeling, that offense and build a HUGE barrier between me and the other person. If we are not willing to let go of the offense, to let go of ourselves and be vulnerable, honest about hurts, those things will rot inside of us. They will rot, fester, and ultimately destroy unity with others and with God.
Search my heart, Oh God.
