THE LIE
THE LIE
Have you ever heard someone say, usually after an angry outburst, “That’s just not like me.”
Oh, but it is.
Every one of us shares the same propensity to act like everyone else given the same circumstances. We are as alike as we are unique.
It may not be our “normal” but those traits we don’t like in others certainly exist within each of us. My husband has a very, very, long rope but I can tell you that given the right circumstances, that rope is cut quickly!
Many a marriage has failed because a spouse thought they were “above” being tempted. Many a relationship has ended because someone pretended they weren’t offended, because “that’s just not like me.”
Again, oh, yes it is. Scripture gives example after example of people who “thought” they were less vulnerable to mistakes and wrong doings because it “just wasn’t like them”. Look at King David.
David apparently thought he was above temptation when he watched Bathsheba as she undressed. He became so obsessed with her he eventually ended up murdering her husband which had serious repercussions on the rest of his life.
Peter thought he couldn’t be tempted and ended up not only betrayed Christ but had to live with that the rest of his life because “that just wasn’t like him”.
HOW OTHERS PEELS OFF OUR LAYERS
I hope this portion from Oswald Chambers is not one hundred percent accurate.
“Watch the kind of people God brings around you and you will be humiliated to find that this is His way of revealing to you the kind of person you have been to him. Now exhibit to that one exactly what I have shown to you.”
We should pay attention to the negative traits we see in others that we dismiss with, “that’s them, never me” and realize that at some point in our life, we have exhibited those some traits before God.
And yet He loves us.
Love, as the scriptures refer to love, has nothing to so with sloppy sentimentality.
THE ANSWER
Love is so much more. The love that God wants us to show others is the kind that is always in the best interest of the other person. It’s called agape love.
- That’s exactly how Jesus loved when he walked away from the “rich, young ruler”.
- It’s exactly how Jesus loved when, after forgiving the woman caught in adultery, he told her, “Go, and sin no more.”
Jesus didn’t need either one of them to do anything different for Him.
It was for them and their future well-being, just as it is for us today. Everything in Scripture is meant for our ulitmate well-being. The admonitions and restrictions aren’t meant to hurt us. They are meant to help us. That’s what LOVE doe.
Why don’t we get that?
Why don’t I get that?
So the next time you run into that difficult person, remember that somewhere in your lifetime, you have shown those very same traits.
Humbling, isn’t it?
God bless and I hope you have a good day.
