Am I grateful enough to help, even when it hurts?

This morning, as we prepared to take my wife to the appointment to get her cataracts taken care of, I was busy and distracted and was so tempted not to take the time to pray.  And I found myself using that all too familiar excuse, “After all, God knows what we need . . . “

That’s when I began thinking, “What if God only gave us the things we’d thanked Him for yesterday?”

Most of us take our breath and our overall health for granted, just like we take our safety and security for granted.  Instead, we put our faith our bank accounts, on our comfortable routine, on our locked doors, our ingenuity and on our possessions . . . 

So, is it really any wonder that God will occasionally take away one of our “props”;  take away a resource - or a job - or even a relationship we’ve leaned on for so long?

While we might react and think that He’s being mean or vindictive or even that He just doesn’t care, I think it is quite the opposite.  He cares so much that He refuses to leave us in our stupor.

He would rather see us suffer for a season than allow unto simply “sleepwalk” through life. He knows the real enemy of our soul is not the terrible things that happen to us.  The enemy is the complacency that inevitably creeps in when we are comfortable, when there is no tragedy.

We have a loving Father Who has promised to supply our every need - yet we get so fixated on our wants and desired that we become deluded into thinking that THOSE are the things that make life worth living.

So, in the quest for a “better life” for his family, a man will work all the overtime he can - even as the family he is purportedly looking to pamper drifts away.  Or in our effort to make sure our kids are able to compete in the world, we spend hundreds of thousands of dollars and send them to universities where they are indoctrinated into the socialist/Marxist mindset. And to be kind and loving towards someone trapped in a sinful lifestyle, we choose not to confront or offend them essentially leaving them adrift in their sin.

Very few of us like confrontation.  In fact, most of us will do nearly anything we can to avoid it.  Yet, sometimes the hard things must be said. sometimes we have to simply “man-up” and put what we know to be true into words.  Sure, it might sting, but those are things that heal in time.

Remember, a person will never look for a cure if they don’t first understand they are ill.

In Christ,

Pastor Ed