One reason why God allows us at times to be disappointed with our
fellow human beings is so that we might learn to stop leaning on man. He
desires to free us from such idolatry (for it is a form of idolatry to depend
on man), so that we might learn to lean wholly upon Him alone. And so when God
orders your circumstances in such a way that you are disappointed on every
side, that shouldn’t discourage you. It is just God weaning you away from the
arm of flesh so that you might learn to live by faith in Him. Learn to find
your security in the fact that God loves you as He loved Jesus.
I took the above quote from a devotional that I recently read and
it struck me. I love getting new
revelations and having the opportunity to see things in a slightly different
way.
I consider myself to be a good friend. I’m loyal.
I’m trustworthy. I’m
discrete. I won’t tell your
business. Ironically, though I don’t
have many friends. I think the reason
for that is that I hold people to a very high standard. Maybe too high. I don’t leave a lot of room for
mistakes. I expect people to be as good
a friend to me as I am to them. That’s
not really fair, I suppose. If a person
hurts me, there is very little chance that they will be given an opportunity to
do it again – because they’ve been unceremoniously cut off. Hurt me once, shame on you. Hurt me twice – oh yeah, there won’t be a
twice.
After reading the devotional I started thinking and came to the
conclusion that if I didn’t place such a heavy burden on those around me (not
to disappoint me) then when disappointment comes (and it will come) I won’t be
so discouraged. People are people. They make mistakes. I make mistakes and if God treated me the way
I treated people for making mistakes, where would I be?
It is not anyone’s job to fulfill me or make me happy. I can’t lean on other people for that. God wants me to lean on Him and Him
alone.
There is a challenge that comes with this belief though. Because I don’t think that God wants us to
walk the earth all alone. I believe He
wants us to be in relationships with other people but we are not to place
unreasonable expectations on those that we are in relationships with. Does that make sense?
Anyway, just something to think about. Have a good weekend. I’m finishing up my June 100-mile challenge tomorrow
and then I’m going to the beach!
1 comment:
That is a very good devotional quote. It definitely makes one examine their reliance on God. I think that is something we work on until the day we die. For myself, I have a tendency to ebb and flow in that area. There's always room for growth, and that devotional gets to the core of it.
I don't think it's the quantity of friends, but the quality of friends that I have that means much to me. And my biggest thing is that I don't like to deal with messy or dramatic people. I can smell drama a mile away. You got drama issues with everybody, then you will eventually have drama with me. That's my litmus test. That causes me to walk off and disappear.
And I tend to be a loner. And those who have known me long term, and know the total "arc" of me, understand and appreciate that.
You're my friend in my head, Chele. Just so you know. LOL.
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