Love from the center of who you are; don't fake it. Run for dear life from evil; hold on for dear life to good. Be good friends who love deeply; practice playing second fiddle. Don't burn out; keep yourselves fueled and aflame. Be alert servants of the Master, cheerfully expectant. Don't quit in hard times; pray all the harder.
Romans 12:9-12 The Message
Practice playing second fiddle? Okay, confession time. I've been angry for most of a week…at the same person. I think I get over it and he comes back a little later and does the same thing or something in the same vein, and I'm angry all over again. I haven't hit him, I didn't swear. I didn't throw anything. I didn't yell or scream.
I've been patting myself on the back, thinking, 'What a good girl am I' because I didn't hit him, I didn't cuss. I didn't throw anything. I didn't yell or scream. Pitiful… Pathetic... PA – THET – IC! 'Ick' being the operative sound there. I was thinking that I was being angry and not sinning…after all, I was right and I knew I was right. Self-righteous, filthy rags. Isaiah 64:6, But we are all like an unclean thing, and all our righteousnesses are like filthy rags…
Do I want to be right or do I want to be in right-standing with God? Our text for today reads a little differently in the King James. Verse 10 reads, Be kindly affectioned one to another with brotherly love; in honor preferring one another... There was no way my actions could even remotely be misconstrued as preferring one another in honor...
James 3:17-18 reads ...the wisdom that is from above is first pure, then peaceable, gentle, willing to yield, full of mercy and good fruits, without partiality and without hypocrisy. Now the fruit of righteousness is sown in peace by those who make peace.
Right or Righteousness? And as my heart is convicted within me...
Father,
Forgive me, O God, according to Your Word in 1st John 1:9, that if we confess our sins, You are faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. The only thing I have to be right about is being right with You. Help me, Father. In Jesus' Name I pray. Amen
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