The next thing that we need to do if we want
to see better days ahead, we need to keep a humble mind. Keeping a humble mind
may sound like a “catch phrase”, but to keep a humble mind actually means doing
something that most of us do not want to do. It literally means considering
someone else to be more important than you. In Philippians 2:3-4 it
reads, “Let nothing be
done through selfish ambition or conceit, but in lowliness of mind
let each esteem others better than himself. Let each of you look out not
only for his own interests, but also for the interests of others.” The
Apostle Paul explains that Jesus set the standard of humility by living
humility out in His life. Jesus invites you and I to consider others more
important than ourselves. This is easy
to do when we all agree and everything is peaceful. But, this is really hard to
do when life is tough and social divisions abound.
So Pastor Kyle wants to
encourage us all to keep a humble mind by putting others first. He wants to
encourage all of us to approach people with more of an open ear and less of a
pointing finger. To keep a humble mind, we have to let go of our pride. The
great Israelite leader, who led the people of God into the Promised Land said
in Joshua
24:14-15, “Now therefore,
fear the Lord, serve Him in sincerity and in truth, and put away
the gods which your fathers served on the other side of the River
and in Egypt. Serve the Lord! And if it seems evil to you to
serve the Lord, choose for yourselves this day whom you will serve,
whether the gods which your fathers served that were on the
other side of the River, or the gods of the Amorites, in whose land
you dwell. But as for me and my house, we will serve the Lord.” And
for us today, we need to choose whom we want to serve. Are we going to serve
our own selfish pride or serve God. We need to drop our prideful opinions of
the past and our prideful thought patterns that we held onto and choose this
day to embrace the transforming work of Jesus Christ in our hearts, minds and
souls.
Here is the next thing we
need to do in order to see better days. Keep forgiving others and yourself. 1
Peter 2:9 “But
you are a chosen generation, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, His
own special people, that you may proclaim the praises of Him who called you out
of darkness into His marvelous light.” The Apostle reminds us that if
we want to be blessed, then we need to stop reviling and start forgiving. If we
want to see our relationships move forward, we need to stop moving them
backwards by constantly bringing up old wounds. Keep forgiving others and
yourself.
All of us are longing for
better days ahead and what 1 Peter 3:8-12 gives us is a road map on how to get
there. The nation seems angry today. Are you angry? Let me remind you that
anger is a surface emotion and what is underneath anger is hurt. We will never
solve the anger that we are feeling inside until we let God heal the hurt that
is inside our heart. Some may feel that they nave a “righteous anger” towards
an issue … like God has towards sin. Even if that is the case, we have to ask
ourselves: What would Jesus do? There are times for righteous anger, but the
majority of the Bible tells us that the way we are supposed to interact with
this world is though love, not through anger. So, if you are angry because you
are hurt, let God heal your heart. We are all longing for the same thing. What
we are longing for is better days.
We need to be praying for
better days. The Bible tells us pray without ceasing, pray about everything,
prayer moves mountains, God hears our prayers and there is power in prayer. The
real battle we are facing now is a spiritual battle. Prayer is where the battle
of the heart is won. We are not powerless. We are powerful and power-filled
with the Holy Spirit. Give your hearts to the Healer and then we find peace,
unity and better days on this side of Heaven, where so much is broken. But,
butter days are ahead.
In Christ, Brian
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