Size 7
When you are going through a trial, the last thing you need is for people to start questioning your faith. My faith is very firmly in tack and it isn’t going anywhere. But while you are going through it doesn’t stop the fact that you’re not feeling well, there is pain in your body, and it seems as though you are getting hit with one complication after another. And being that I am still housed in a human body, sometimes we must exercise wisdom and rest that body. We as a people are quick to judge standing on the outside eavesdropping and not really catching the whole story…We think we know what you are going through, but the truth is we have no idea. The doctor’s visits, the medicine, the money, the sleepless nights and the uncertainty of missing another work day… Before you judge me, ask yourself can you walk in these shoes? My personal shoe size is a 7, but if you start to add and take away everything I may have to endure in the course of an average day; the shoe will never fit another just right; because it wasn’t designed for anyone but the one is wearing/bearing it. But because we have allowed self-righteousness to creep in, many of us are quick to forget the walks we have taken that has had some unsuspected detours which have caused our very own shoe size to fluctuates at times too…
Examine yourselves, whether ye be in the faith; prove your own selves. Know ye not your own self, how that Jesus Christ is in you, except ye be reprobates? (2 Corinthians 13:5)
Let me take the liberty to define the word reprobate. Reprobate: to condemn strongly as unworthy, unacceptable, or evil; to foreordain to damnation. So, while we are exhausting all our time scrutinizing others, we fail to realize the enemy has us exactly where he wants us; not keeping our own houses in order. We are not examining ourselves and he is taking advantage of our state of unawares and capturing many into the bondage of possibly becoming a reprobate. This is not a place any of us should want to find ourselves. 2 Thessalonians 3:11 states, “For we hear that there are some which walk among you disorderly, working not at all, but are busybodies.” Many want to talk about what someone else is doing and in the process, they themselves aren’t doing anything. All the while you are in your home, praying, reading the Word, making full proof of your ministry, trusting God silently with all that you are walking through, but because you choose to not do it in the open before man, you are judged.
Take heed that ye do not your alms before men, to be seen of them: otherwise ye have no reward of your Father which is in heaven. (Matthew 6:1).
The lesson to take from this, is if you are not certain of what is really going on in another man/woman’s house, it is best to just be silent. If there is a true concern, pray about it and only by the leading of the Holy Spirit go to that brother or sister in the spirit of Truth. A talebearer wants to ‘spill the tea’ to everyone except the one they should be. Then the concern just becomes gossip; which means there was never any real concern in the first place. So again, this is why the Word says to examine “yourself”. We should desire to never error, though admittedly we all do at times, but as a reminder to us to do better I am reminded of this: “He suffered no man to do them wrong: yea, he reproved kings for their sakes Saying, Touch not mine anointed, and do my prophets no harm.” (Psalms 105:14-15). With that being said, we never really know who our Lord has chosen, so it is best to remember, while we know not to put our hands on another, we should also guard our mouths by not speaking negatively of another either; for now that we know better, we should be inspired to do better. Amen!
fdejean
Set Apart 