(Blessed
are the meek for they shall inherit the earth, Matthew 5:5)
The Pharisees thought they were the experts. Pharisees lacked humility. Jesus warned about not being many teachers there is a greater condemnation. (Not many of you should become teachers, my fellow believers, because you know that we who teach will be judged more strictly, James 3:1)
Many people think they are an expert on life. They are an expert about a successful marriage when they never had one, raising children when they don’t have children, how to handle teenagers when their children are small, how to raise a blended family when they never had step children, how to overcome grief in loss when they never lost a good relationship or a child.
We can lack humility in life. What is humility? A modest opinion or estimation of one's self.
The Pharisees thought they were the experts. Pharisees lacked humility. Jesus warned about not being many teachers there is a greater condemnation. (Not many of you should become teachers, my fellow believers, because you know that we who teach will be judged more strictly, James 3:1)
Many people think they are an expert on life. They are an expert about a successful marriage when they never had one, raising children when they don’t have children, how to handle teenagers when their children are small, how to raise a blended family when they never had step children, how to overcome grief in loss when they never lost a good relationship or a child.
We can lack humility in life. What is humility? A modest opinion or estimation of one's self.
(For by the grace given to me I say to everyone among
you not to think of himself more highly than he ought to think, but to think
with sober judgment, each according to the measure of faith that God has
assigned. Romans 12:3)
One
thing that really amazes me about Moses in the Bible is that it says he was the
meekest man on the whole planet. So where did Moses get that?
Now Moses was a very humble man, more humble than anyone else on the face of the earth. Numbers 12:3
He was raised in the courts of Egypt. Egyptian princes were taught I'm sure that they were gods. It's not as bad in our own school system, but we are taught more of a humanistic philosophy. It helps me to watch the movie 100 Spartans where they stood up against the king of Persia Xerxes and how prideful he was to try to get them to bow down to him. It gives me a little idea what it would have been like when Moses was in the palace. I believe that Moses got his meekness from God. Probably the 40 years in the desert.
God's ministry can be a difficult calling at times. I believe that is why Jesus made a point to tell the Pharisees that Elijah only came to one widow woman, that only one leper was healed.
I assure you that there were many widows in Israel in Elijah's time, when the sky was shut for three and a half years and there was a severe famine throughout the land. Yet Elijah was not sent to any of them, but to a widow in Zarephath in the region of Sidon. And there were many in Israel with leprosy in the time of Elisha the prophet, yet not one of them was cleansed--only Naaman the Syrian." Luke 4:25-27
All the people in the synagogue were furious when they heard this. Luke 4:28
When I was in my 20's, a divorced single guy used to cry on my shoulder when my husband was an assistant minister at a church, but I told him, "Brother I have no clue how to help you, I have never been divorced, I will pray for you." When I was remarried and my husband and I went to our pastor for help with a blended family, he said that he only had one child so he had no clue how to help us with step-parenting issues. When a friend at work lost her husband, I tried to put the shoe on my foot and have empathy and picture myself without my spouse (which was hard to do). Help her the best way I could, but I would not have imagined the exact same thing would happen to me one year later (a sudden death).
Brethren, if a man be overtaken in a fault, ye which are spiritual, restore such an one in the spirit of meekness; considering thyself, lest thou also be tempted. Galatians 6:1
Even now, when I sit down with widows, I have no idea where a person is in the process, so I have to ask God for wisdom on what to say to a person on case by case basis.
Job is the oldest book in the Bible and Job's friends thought they had it all figured out that Job did something wrong because he had so many problems. Than when Job asked God about it, God asked him where he was when he formed the earth. Job then got a revelation of God.
It's hard to understand at times when life seems rather a stagnant pool like the Dead Sea that God is working. Abraham and Sarah had a hard time in that stagnant time in their life. To trust God. When Job said, "Although God slay me, yet will I trust (hope) him." Job 13:15. He was talking about putting his confidence and hope in God. I am not putting confidence in a man, because I know man is not going to figure life out. Sometimes when I see these things on the news, it makes me see our world hanging by a thread like each of our lives are just a vapor.
I believe that is why the Bible says, "Unless the Lord build the house they labor in vain who build it and Unless the Lord watches over the city, the guards stand watch in vain. Psalm 127:1
Now Moses was a very humble man, more humble than anyone else on the face of the earth. Numbers 12:3
He was raised in the courts of Egypt. Egyptian princes were taught I'm sure that they were gods. It's not as bad in our own school system, but we are taught more of a humanistic philosophy. It helps me to watch the movie 100 Spartans where they stood up against the king of Persia Xerxes and how prideful he was to try to get them to bow down to him. It gives me a little idea what it would have been like when Moses was in the palace. I believe that Moses got his meekness from God. Probably the 40 years in the desert.
God's ministry can be a difficult calling at times. I believe that is why Jesus made a point to tell the Pharisees that Elijah only came to one widow woman, that only one leper was healed.
I assure you that there were many widows in Israel in Elijah's time, when the sky was shut for three and a half years and there was a severe famine throughout the land. Yet Elijah was not sent to any of them, but to a widow in Zarephath in the region of Sidon. And there were many in Israel with leprosy in the time of Elisha the prophet, yet not one of them was cleansed--only Naaman the Syrian." Luke 4:25-27
All the people in the synagogue were furious when they heard this. Luke 4:28
When I was in my 20's, a divorced single guy used to cry on my shoulder when my husband was an assistant minister at a church, but I told him, "Brother I have no clue how to help you, I have never been divorced, I will pray for you." When I was remarried and my husband and I went to our pastor for help with a blended family, he said that he only had one child so he had no clue how to help us with step-parenting issues. When a friend at work lost her husband, I tried to put the shoe on my foot and have empathy and picture myself without my spouse (which was hard to do). Help her the best way I could, but I would not have imagined the exact same thing would happen to me one year later (a sudden death).
Brethren, if a man be overtaken in a fault, ye which are spiritual, restore such an one in the spirit of meekness; considering thyself, lest thou also be tempted. Galatians 6:1
Even now, when I sit down with widows, I have no idea where a person is in the process, so I have to ask God for wisdom on what to say to a person on case by case basis.
Job is the oldest book in the Bible and Job's friends thought they had it all figured out that Job did something wrong because he had so many problems. Than when Job asked God about it, God asked him where he was when he formed the earth. Job then got a revelation of God.
It's hard to understand at times when life seems rather a stagnant pool like the Dead Sea that God is working. Abraham and Sarah had a hard time in that stagnant time in their life. To trust God. When Job said, "Although God slay me, yet will I trust (hope) him." Job 13:15. He was talking about putting his confidence and hope in God. I am not putting confidence in a man, because I know man is not going to figure life out. Sometimes when I see these things on the news, it makes me see our world hanging by a thread like each of our lives are just a vapor.
I believe that is why the Bible says, "Unless the Lord build the house they labor in vain who build it and Unless the Lord watches over the city, the guards stand watch in vain. Psalm 127:1
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