I'M SORRY

Someone once said, “For a happy marriage, when your wrong admit it, when your right shut up.” This is good advice and could eliminate many problems if adhered to. It’s also good for much more than just marriage.

               What is it about the human workings that hates to admit, “I was wrong?” It just kind of hangs up in your throat doesn’t it.

               How many arguments, fusses, disagreements, and “falling outs” could have been stopped in the initial stages, before things got out of hand, if either party would have just stopped and said “I’m sorry,” instead of going on in indifference. Sounds easy doesn’t it? Does it really matter who was wrong? Does it really matter what it was about? Fact is, we usually come up with plenty of reasons, and a lot of them from religious reasoning, why we have the right and reason to not be the one to give in. “After all, it’s the principle of the matter. I can’t show weakness by giving in, and besides, Jesus showed anger and righteous indignation.” Yeah He did, but He never came into sin as a result of it. Can we say that we usually don’t sin when we are angry?

               Lord, guard my lips, mind, and heart against hurting those who I love, and love me, with angry words spoken in haste or out of my own hurt.

               What does the Word of God say?  Ephesians 4:23-32 & 5:4   23) And be renewed in the spirit of your mind; 24) And that ye put on the new man, which after God is created in righteousness and true holiness. 25) Wherefore putting away lying, speak every man truth with his neighbor: for we are members one of another. 26) Be ye angry, and sin not: let not the sun go down upon your wrath: 27) Neither give place to the devil. 28) Let him that stole steal no more: but rather let him labour, working with his hands the thing which is good, that he may have to give to him that needs. 29) Let no corrupt communication proceed out of your mouth, but that which is good to the use of edifying, that it may minister grace unto the hearers. 30) And grieve not the Holy Spirit of God, whereby ye are sealed unto the day of redemption. 31) Let all bitterness, and wrath, and anger, and clamor, and evil speaking, be put away from you, with all malice: 32) And be ye kind one to another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, even as God for Christ’s sake hath forgiven you.

5:4) Neither filthiness, nor foolish talking, nor jesting, which are not convenient: but rather giving of thanks.

Pray this Prayer:  Lord, guard my lips, mind, and heart against hurting those who I love, and love me, with angry words spoken in haste or out of my own hurt.

               Remember God loves you!          

HIS STRENGTH FOR OUR WEAKNESS (Part 3)

3.  THEIR GREAT DISCOVERY (No Task is Too Great for God – His Strength for Our Weakness)

     An yet Paul had said that it was when he was at his weakest that God’s power was channeled most effectively in his life. It is difficult to imagine a situation that would be more threatening than the one Israel faced. Little did she realize that she was about to make a great discovery. No task is too great for God.

     Moses responded to the cries and laments of Israel by saying: “Stand still and see the salvation of the Lord” (Exodus 14:13). Pharaoh was behind them, the Red Sea was before them, but Israel was about to discover that God makes a way where there is no way. When we are dealing with Him we have touched supernatural resources. An east wind began to blow all night long, and a path was made in the sea.

     Israel was about to discover that when God acts He acts in the nick of time. His words to Paul had been: “My grace is sufficient.” Not an overabundance, not too little, but just enough. This is a thought that characterizes God’s actions: “When the fullness of time was come” (Gal. 4:4). God sent forth His Son, Christ Jesus. God acts in our lives at a time when we needed Him to act. This was Israel’s discovery. Now they needed the Red Sea parted. The time had come.

     But there was a third discovery. Salvation is not what we do, but it is what God does. These were the words of Moses: “Stand still and see the salvation of the Lord.” Not what we do, but what He does. No task is too great for Him.

     Let me ask you:

·         Do you feel like there is no place to go?

·        Is your back to the wall?

     We don’t have to go anywhere or do anything to experience His presence and His strength. It is there for those who will make the discovery “When I am weak, then am I strong.”

HIS STRENGTH FOR OUR WEAKNESS (Part 2)

2.  THE TEMPTATION WITH WHICH THEY FLIRTED (No strength Left to Fight – A Great Danger)

      Israel’s anxiety over her dilemma was only exceeded by its dangerousness. There are great dangers in weakness. When we are weak we have little strength left to fight. Certainly a fight appeared inevitable. Pharaoh’s army was thundering down upon Israel and her strength was gone.

      She began to flirt with temptation. She had no place to go and no strength left to fight. Temptation is most effective when we are at our weakness. Esau made this discovery when he sold his birthright to Jacob. Saul found himself flirting with temptation while he waited on Samuel to offer the sacrifice at Gilgal. When we are at our weakest the pressure to give life’s pressures is at its severest level.

      How do we know that she began to flirt with temptation? We see it in her behavior. She began to look for someone to blame for her circumstance other than herself. You know you are at your weakest when you began to look for someone to blame your problems on. Israel did. She began to accuse Moses of leading her “away into the wilderness to die” (Exodus 14:19-31). And her accusations were wholly false. Her own description of the circumstance sounds like she was compelled to leave Egypt. This was not the case. Moses had led, but Israel had followed of her own free will. A generation of her parents had “cried to the Lord” for deliverance. This fact was related to Moses at the burning bush. “The cry of the children of Israel has come unto me” (Exodus 3:9). With little strength left to fight she began to blame others for her circumstance.

     With little strength left to fight she was tempted to sacrifice her faith in a moment of fear. “The children of Israel lifted up their eyes, and, behold, the Egyptians marched after them; and they were sore afraid” (Exodus 14:10). Fear is a great instrument of temptation sometimes. It causes us to do things that at a more rational moment we would never consider. Saul offered the sacrifice at Gilgal because he was afraid that Samuel would not arrive before the Philistines pitched their battle. David had Uriah murdered because he was afraid his own deeds with Bathsheba would be disclosed. Fear is a great tempter. Israel was afraid.

     Yet there was still a third dimension to Israel’s temptation. She forgot the past from which she had come. She told Moses that it had been better if he had never come and she was still in Egypt “to serve the Egyptians” (Exodus 14:12). It is always a mistake to forget the past for which we have come. It provides a perspective on the present and the future that God’s people need to be effective. Yet with no place to go and with no strength left to fight, Israel found herself flirting with temptation.

Be sure to check the blog posting in a couple of days for 3rd Installment – (THEIR GREAT DISCOVERY (No Task is Too Great for God – His Strength for Our Weakness).

   Remember, you gain victory by finding His Strength for your Weakness.