Splinters

Don’t you see how wonderfully kind, tolerant, and patient God is with you? Does this mean nothing to you? Can’t you see that his kindness is intended to turn you from your sin?
Romans 2:4 NLT

Confessing my faults so that I might be healed... Despite what some might think, my preference is to teach by example rather than tell people what to do. It is my intention to live in peace and to hopefully change unwanted behaviors by proving what can be accomplished through choices we make. However, I have to confess my patience and long-suffering abilities are not even remotely close to the lengths that God will go to show kindness, and so, after a time, I wind up saying exactly how and what I think should be done. Sometimes, that's good. Sometimes, not so much. My choices.

Some days, I know the mercy I choose to extend to my fellow man is NOT new every morning. It's as though I have prescribed a set amount per use and if the whole allotment is used in less time than I think is appropriate, you don't get any more until either I get over it or I think you've earned the right to have more. And that is so NOT God. And Romans chapter 2 fully addresses these wrong mindsets.

While I do most of my reading/study in the New Living and New King James, sometimes I just love the phrasing in The Message interpretation. Verse 3 - 4a, You didn’t think, did you, that just by pointing your finger at others you would distract God from seeing all your misdoings and from coming down on you hard? Or did you think that because he’s such a nice God, he’d let you off the hook? Better think this one through from the beginning. God is kind, but he’s not soft. Verse 5a, You’re not getting by with anything. 

Verse 9, If you go against the grain, you get splinters, regardless of which neighborhood you’re from, what your parents taught you, what schools you attended.

Going against the grain in this instance translates to not walking in obedience to God's Word. If you go against the grain, you get splinters - regardless...

Prayer:

Father,
          Help us to rightly divide Your Word so that we go with Your flow and not against the grain. Help us to pull out the splinters of our disobedience so they don't fester and kill us... or others. Forgive us, O God! Heal us, Father, change our hearts. In Jesus' Name we pray. Amen