Tag: blame God
Don’t deceive yourself!
Scripture reading for November 2nd: James 1
James was the half-brother of Jesus Christ and the pastor of the church in Jerusalem. James wrote this letter as possibly one of the first letters of encouragement and correction taken into the body of writings known as the New Testament. He wrote during a time of intense persecution for Jewish believers who had taken Christ as the Messiah. One of his primary concerns was deception.
“Don’t be deceived, my dear brothers. Every good and perfect gift is from the Father of the heavenly lights, who does not change like shifting shadows. He chose to give us birth through the word of truth, that we might be a kind of first-fruits of all He created.” (James 1:16-18)
“Do not merely listen to the word, and so deceive yourselves. Do what it says.” (James 1:22)
“If anyone considers himself religious and yet does not keep a tight reign on his tongue, he deceives himself and his religion is worthless.” (James 1:26)
In order for a person to be deceived, they must believe that information is the truth when it is, in reality, not true. We can be ‘self-deceived’ when we choose to believe something that we want to be true, but fail to accept anything that might show it is not true. James was warning the Jewish believers and us of the folly of deception. We are truly in a bad state if we believe something is true that is really false and refuse to allow anyone to correct us! Faith and obedient action must go together. We much watch our tongues and always trust that God is good!
Leaders and those who follow!
Scripture reading for January 24th: Exodus 16-18
For some reason, I’ve been in leadership positions all my life! I’ve always felt inadequate and usually haven’t sought a leadership position; others always seemed to volunteer me. As I’ve worked leading in various secular and church positions, I’ve become acutely aware of my inability to please everyone. Moses soon learned this same truth! There are as many opinions as there are people under you and Moses had over a million “followers”!
God’s people were delivered from Egypt by a mighty act of power by the Lord, and then from Pharaoh’s pursuing army! Led by Miriam, Moses’ sister, they danced in joy and sang a song of deliverance! A few days after the victory celebration, the Israelites faced hunger and began to grumble. They blamed Moses for his poor leadership and for bringing them out into the desert to die. (Exodus 16:3) A little farther into the walk, they ran out of water and began to grumble again, quarreling with Moses. Their hearts were angry and hard and they blamed their leader, actually blaming God! (Exodus 16:8)
Moses’ father-in-law, Jethro, came for a visit to bring back Moses’ wife and two sons. Jethro was thrilled to hear the stories of God’s deliverance through his son-in-law. He observed Moses sitting in judgment with all the people coming to him with their complaints. His advice to Moses was to raise up some helpers to share the load of leadership.
If you are a follower, pray and obey before you complain! When you grumble about your leader, you are grumbling about God! Listen to your leadership and support them by prayer and encouragement! Don’t test or blame God; He is never at fault! If you are a leader, raise up those who can help you with the work. It blesses you and them to use the gifts God has given them to serve. Leadership is a joy when you take these tips and your followers do, too! The main one to please in all of this is God. May His face be smiling on your leadership!