Good Morning Girls
Read Luke 3:10-14 SOAP Luke 3:10-11
I find this passage so interesting because of the strength of John's initial statement. After calling the Jews a brood of vipers, they ask him what they must do. It's as if John says, "Let your faith in God actually make a difference in your life!" The gospel is ineffectual if it is being represented by people who remain unchanged.
John did not attack their respective professions, but instead challenged them to do them honestly. He specifically asks them to be generous (vs 11), honest (vs 13), and content with what they had (vs 14). I discern from these verses that I must be distinct from the world in my behavior. Although it is common for women to be manipulative, gossips, controlling, sharp-tongued, emotional, materialistic, etc. - I cannot be these things. If the gospel will have any effect on those around me, I must be different than this.
Father, help me resist the temptation to be like the world, driven by sinful motives. Help me recognize when I am not behaving as if I have been changed by the gospel. Please change my heart into something that please you.
Comment below
Our soap scriptures today spoke to me about having compassion and mercy on those who do not have. But I also found some other scriptures in Luke 10:33-35 that spoke of great compassion by the good Samaritan. Jesus taught in these verses how we should help each other, how we are to be caring of someone who is so desperately hurt. I would say that in most cases the good Samaritan attitude doesn’t happen very often. Why? Because we are so focused on our world and what is happening at the present that it is really hard to find the time help anyone else. The bible shows how Jesus showed compassion in all his preaching and teaching as he went about feeding the hungry, compassion for healing the sick, casting out demons that came to destroy people’s lives. We are not told what these people who were helped did with their lives after that, but I am sure they were never the same.
ReplyDeleteMy thoughts today were that God isn’t asking us to give up everything we have (that’s pretty compassionate right there) but only asking that we share what we do have with others. It’s not always easy to move self out of the way but I pray as I grow in Jesus Christ, it would become the normal.
I want the world to see the difference in me. I am guilty of becoming so busy and wrapped up in my routine that I forget to reach out to others. The bible plainly tells us over and over to treat others like we want to be treated. I don't know why this is so hard sometimes. Lord, please help me to be more aware of putting others first.
ReplyDeleteWhen we lived in OK, we lived in the woods basically with no one but family nearby. Since moving here into a neighborhood, and the kids getting older and involved in school and activities I feel like I am in the middle of a constant stream of different people and personalities and honestly I'm overwhelmed sometimes. Mike was watching a historical documentary the other night and I was reading, but I kept stopping to listen. It was about settlers trying to make a go at farming and sometimes one family would be the only people in an area for hundreds of miles and that sounded pretty good to me! But I said all that to say this, today's scriptures reminded me, it's not all about me. I have to remember to be salt and light to EVERYONE around me. Relationships are hard. And there are so many more today than the settlers had. You have your immediate family, neighbors, friends, playgroups, book club, church family, school, work, gym, and just random people you pass by everyday at the store, the library, or wherever you go! I can't just put my head down, get my daily tasks done and then run home and hide. I need to be a light to everyone I encounter.
ReplyDeletethese verses remind me how it is the everyday things that make a difference. The small stuff that happens throughout the day. I have eyes watching me throughout the day. And three at home still influenced by the choices that I am making. They watch not only the decisions I make, but how.
ReplyDeleteCompassion needs to be more than just a word. It needs to be lived out each and every day. something small to us, could make a difference in some one's day. Lord, help me to become more aware of those moments that can make a difference.