"Teach me to do your will, for you are my God; may your good Spirit lead me on level ground." Psalm 143:10
Are you the kind of person that can allow life's little annoyances to get on your nerves from time to time? I'm talking about those insignificant things that will drive you absolutely nuts if you allow them. Perhaps the ticking of a clock, or the incessant clicking of a pen, or someone's chewing sounds are enough to send you over the edge. If you are like me, you have to force yourself to focus on something besides that annoyance.
One of the other things that tends to bother me is the picture that is not hanging just right. There's something about that slightest little imperfection that is magnified whenever you look at the straight line where the wall meets the ceiling and then realize that the beautiful family portrait is obviously higher on one side than the other!
Well, God is seriously challenging my amount of long-suffering these days! He has blessed me with the opportunity to stand in the font of a classroom each day and teach a sweet group of children about Him, as well as Reading, Writing and Arithmetic! As I stand there each day, I am presented with a challenge. I have to force myself to overlook all of the pictures and teaching aids that I've hung in my room that now appear to be slightly off!
You see, the floor in my classroom has a gradual slope to it. As I began hanging things on the wall, I would take a step back and realize that what I had just hung was completely not level because I had been deceived by using the ground as my frame of reference. I was trying to use something that was not level as my standard and my guide.
Oh, how guilty I am of doing that very same thing with my life. I have been known to use other people as my standard for what will make my life appear to be hung completely straight. However, when I take a step back, I have realized many times that I was basing what I thought would be right for me on someone who wasn't even themselves walking on level ground.
I was looking for something that was level in the midst of a world that is totally askew. I was trying to base how "straight" I appeared to be on the basis of someone else who was just as crooked as I was! After doing that multiple times and coming up with the same result, I came to the conclusion that I had to find something that was unmistakably level to be my frame of reference.
I came to realize what David must have known when he penned the 143rd Psalm. You and I can only find ourselves on level ground whenever the Spirit is our guide. We can only make wise choices and Godly decisions whenever we are gauging our actions in light of the only true straight line that has ever been.
When we attempt to lead a life that honors God, we can't even use the strongest, most devoted person in our churches to function as the little bubble that floats in our level. No matter how super-spiritual they appear to be, the Bible tells us that their righteousness (and ours, too) is equivalent to a pile of filthy rags (Isaiah 64:6).
When was the last time that you took a step back from your life to reflect on how level things seem to be hanging? When you did, did you base your conclusion on how you measured up to the rest of the world, or how you measured up to the Word?
Make the choice today to let the Holy Spirit be your frame of reference, rather than a fallen world which will leave you hanging askew every single time.
Are you the kind of person that can allow life's little annoyances to get on your nerves from time to time? I'm talking about those insignificant things that will drive you absolutely nuts if you allow them. Perhaps the ticking of a clock, or the incessant clicking of a pen, or someone's chewing sounds are enough to send you over the edge. If you are like me, you have to force yourself to focus on something besides that annoyance.
One of the other things that tends to bother me is the picture that is not hanging just right. There's something about that slightest little imperfection that is magnified whenever you look at the straight line where the wall meets the ceiling and then realize that the beautiful family portrait is obviously higher on one side than the other!
Well, God is seriously challenging my amount of long-suffering these days! He has blessed me with the opportunity to stand in the font of a classroom each day and teach a sweet group of children about Him, as well as Reading, Writing and Arithmetic! As I stand there each day, I am presented with a challenge. I have to force myself to overlook all of the pictures and teaching aids that I've hung in my room that now appear to be slightly off!
You see, the floor in my classroom has a gradual slope to it. As I began hanging things on the wall, I would take a step back and realize that what I had just hung was completely not level because I had been deceived by using the ground as my frame of reference. I was trying to use something that was not level as my standard and my guide.
Oh, how guilty I am of doing that very same thing with my life. I have been known to use other people as my standard for what will make my life appear to be hung completely straight. However, when I take a step back, I have realized many times that I was basing what I thought would be right for me on someone who wasn't even themselves walking on level ground.
I was looking for something that was level in the midst of a world that is totally askew. I was trying to base how "straight" I appeared to be on the basis of someone else who was just as crooked as I was! After doing that multiple times and coming up with the same result, I came to the conclusion that I had to find something that was unmistakably level to be my frame of reference.
I came to realize what David must have known when he penned the 143rd Psalm. You and I can only find ourselves on level ground whenever the Spirit is our guide. We can only make wise choices and Godly decisions whenever we are gauging our actions in light of the only true straight line that has ever been.
When we attempt to lead a life that honors God, we can't even use the strongest, most devoted person in our churches to function as the little bubble that floats in our level. No matter how super-spiritual they appear to be, the Bible tells us that their righteousness (and ours, too) is equivalent to a pile of filthy rags (Isaiah 64:6).
When was the last time that you took a step back from your life to reflect on how level things seem to be hanging? When you did, did you base your conclusion on how you measured up to the rest of the world, or how you measured up to the Word?
Make the choice today to let the Holy Spirit be your frame of reference, rather than a fallen world which will leave you hanging askew every single time.
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