... are annoyances that many of us are familiar with. I would venture that most Christians have experienced the unpleasantness of being used on the one hand, or taken for granted on the other.
The question isn't when will it happen, but how will we as God's people respond?
Well, here's what I'm doing today. I may choose to languish in self-pity and righteous indignation again tomorrow, but for today, I took one last fleeting look at my bankroll of unforgiveness (Lot's wife would have cautioned against that backward glance), then sent it to the shredder.
A dear friend visited last night and bemoaned the fact that he sees himself taking a position of ingratitude with his Savior. He mentioned a couple of big blessings to which, he confessed, he realized he was yawning and saying, "Ho hum." He seemed genuinely concerned about his lack of appreciation for some really major workings of God in his life. This helped put me on the other side of the fence I've been straddling. The one where I know I'm as ungrateful a wretch as ever lived (proven by the fact that I received a token of love just last week, tossed it in my locker at work, and forgot to acknowledge it till I opened the locker two days later), but expect flowers and candy when I do the slightest bit of kindness for someone else.
Perhaps the greatest resentments I've been lugging around have centered on other believers who don't do what I expect them to (or what I see as their Christian duty). The Lord showed me recently that what I can learn from my brothers and sisters in Christ is much greater than the ways in which they fail me. In other words, as a 12 step program with which I am gratefully affiliated puts it, "Principles above personalities."
What a concept.
The question isn't when will it happen, but how will we as God's people respond?
Well, here's what I'm doing today. I may choose to languish in self-pity and righteous indignation again tomorrow, but for today, I took one last fleeting look at my bankroll of unforgiveness (Lot's wife would have cautioned against that backward glance), then sent it to the shredder.
A dear friend visited last night and bemoaned the fact that he sees himself taking a position of ingratitude with his Savior. He mentioned a couple of big blessings to which, he confessed, he realized he was yawning and saying, "Ho hum." He seemed genuinely concerned about his lack of appreciation for some really major workings of God in his life. This helped put me on the other side of the fence I've been straddling. The one where I know I'm as ungrateful a wretch as ever lived (proven by the fact that I received a token of love just last week, tossed it in my locker at work, and forgot to acknowledge it till I opened the locker two days later), but expect flowers and candy when I do the slightest bit of kindness for someone else.
Perhaps the greatest resentments I've been lugging around have centered on other believers who don't do what I expect them to (or what I see as their Christian duty). The Lord showed me recently that what I can learn from my brothers and sisters in Christ is much greater than the ways in which they fail me. In other words, as a 12 step program with which I am gratefully affiliated puts it, "Principles above personalities."
What a concept.
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