I was blessed to hear a part of Charles Stanley's message on Friendship this morning, and I need to listen to it in its entirety. At the same time I am reading "Irregular People", an insightful book on those people in our lives (especially kin) who always seem to say and do the most insensitively painful things. And, when we seek to say the most delicate and intimately vulnerable things--it's as if they didn't even hear us.
Our Pastor Chuck consistently tells us that we must sit still long enough to let God truly love us--for us to hear Him say "I Love You" in our prayer closets, and to let that divine love work the changes in us that must take place. Moses was the meekest man on the face of the earth, because he was always moving into or coming from the presence of God. Jesus had total peace and confidence even though He was the Son of Man, because He knew that He and the Father were One. His beloved disciple John said that the Law came through Moses, but Grace and Truth came through Jesus Christ.
Think of all those you know who must "have the preeminence", who must always be right, who must always have the last word, who never apologize for anything, who must always have things their way, who must be the center of attention and appreciation. These are people for whom Jesus Christ has no authority--He is not LORD in or over their lives--and can neither be Savior. They need our compassion and our prayers that God would bring about a divine intervention.
Good friends can tease each other about their foibles and strange habits (because, as humans, we all have them) because they see themselves and each other as the fallen humanity that we are. We are in desperate need of God's mercy and grace. We see ourselves and our friends as co-equals at the foot of the cross. Sadly, those who must constantly strive to be better--or SEEN as better--than others are people without peace and without God.
James Robison: "It takes hurt people to hurt people."
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