"To laugh often and much; to win the respect of intelligent people and the affection of children; to earn the appreciation of honest critics and endure the betrayal of false friends; to appreciate beauty, to find the best in others; to leave the world a little better; whether by a healthy child, a garden patch or a redeemed social condition; to know even one life has breathed easier because you have lived. This is the meaning of success."
-Ralph Waldo Emerson
Have you ever known someone who their main mission in life was to change you? I don't mean to give wise advice, but to try to totally remake who God made you to be? Do you even realize God "wired" you to be the way you are with the personality that you have? He formed every chromosone, set in place every gene, from the color of you hair, eyes, even the very color of your skin! From head to toe He made you to be YOU and NOBODY ELSE! The only person in life you are ever to try to emulate is Jesus Christ! Not "Lady GaGa" please, ( I am actually begging) spare us all, nor any other so called celebrity! The word says, "Before I formed you in the womb I knew you, before you were born I set you apart; I appointed you as a prophet to the nations." Jeremiah 1:5. There it is, straight out of the word of God itself! God made you to be uniquely you, and He approved of the handiwork of you! He made you with that personality, those unique abilities and, according to the word, put a great call to serve Him with it! Yesterday, as I got ready for church, the Lord began to speak to me about my pastor. At first, I didn't know where He was going with what He was telling me, but I listened intently! I began to think about Pastor Scott and how funny and out of place he would look if he tried to preach and act like Kenneth Copeland (a minister my husband and I greatly enjoy and partner with) or Kenneth Hagin, Joyce Meyer, and the many others we think so highly of! In fact, I thought, if Pastor Scott started acting and preaching like them I would not only be concerned and in deep intercessory prayer for him, I would not enjoy his messages nearly as much! Why? Because God made my pastor to be himself and nobody else. His messages are intensely anointed of God, he flows in the gifts of the Holy Spirit, and if he tried to get in the flesh and be someone else the congregation would miss out on a tremendous blessing. Now, notice I said trying to be someone else is getting out of the anointing God has placed on you! Why? Because you set aside what God intended you to be and went your own way or the way someone else thought you should go or be! God then reminded me that in the Bible He does not tell us to go and correct one another's PERSONALITIES, but in all humility and privacy go to someone who is in SIN and correct them, lest WE fall into that same sin or another! In fact, God references personalities of one another in the Bible and this is what He says about it, "1BRETHREN, IF any person is overtaken in MISCONDUCT OR SIN of any sort, you who are spiritual [who are responsive to and controlled by the Spirit] should set him right and restore and reinstate him, without any sense of superiority and with all gentleness, keeping an attentive eye on YOURSELF, lest you should be tempted also.
2Bear (endure, carry) one another's burdens and [a]troublesome moral faults, and in this way fulfill and observe perfectly the law of Christ (the Messiah) and complete [b]what is lacking [in your obedience to it].
3For if any person thinks himself to be somebody [too important to condescend to shoulder another's load] when he is nobody [of superiority except in his own estimation], he deceives and deludes and cheats himself.
4But let every person carefully scrutinize and examine and test HIS OWN CONDUCT AND HIS OWN WORK. He can then have the personal satisfaction and joy of doing something commendable [[c]in itself alone] without [resorting to] boastful comparison with his neighbor.
5For every person will have to bear ([d]be equal to understanding and calmly receive) HIS OWN LITTLE LOAD OF OPPRESSIVE FAULTS." Amplified Bible
In other words you have faults of your own. Look at yourself and don't compare yourself to others, which could lead to to a self-inflated ego! It also means, if you want others to have patience where you are less than perfect, then you will have to have patience with them where YOU think THEY are less than perfect! I could write an entire book on these few, short verses alone but, at this time I won't....:) Before I met and married my husband I had been engaged to someone else. When I began dating this particular man, I broke all of my own rules. I never dated someone who had been divorced (he was), I never dated someone outside of my religious faith (he was), or someone who was outside of my own personal belief system (he was)! We dated and after a time we became engaged to be married(that is a whole different story within itself). The entire time I dated this man he tried to "remake" me into someone I was not. He tried to make me into his ex-wife. He wanted my hair to be blonde. I am a natural brunette. He wanted my hair to be shoulder length. My hair looks horrible long! He wanted me to act a particular way. He literally stifled the very person I was. I had no idea I was in the hands of a controller! I didn't even know what a "controller" was at that point. Thank God, I woke up in time and did not marry this person. As soon as we broke the engagement and all contact I felt liberated!! As though, I had literally been set free! Why? Because I was! I could be "me" again!! I learned to be alone was better than to be with someone who would never accept me. Amazingly, I met the man of my dreams just two months after I broke off my engagement and he didn't try to change one thing about me. He loved everything he saw in me and about me and we married within the year and are still married 28 years later! How does all this relate to my thoughts about my pastor and my church? Glad you asked! I didn't know why at the time God had been speaking these particular things to my heart before our first church service began, but later my husband put it in context for me. For years, I had tried to be accepted and loved for who I am by a particular group. It never happened. I have a laugh that is the type you either hate it or you are drawn to it. I don't laugh in a ladylike manner. I don't laugh from my throat, I laugh from my stomach! Pretty loud, huh? At church yesterday, the services were absolutely amazing. My pastor's wife has been a friend of mine for over 15 years. In all of this time she has always encouraged me to never stifle myself or my laugh. She would always say, "I know things you don't and I cannot tell you. But, I watch people around you that haven't laughed or even smiled in years and years!! When they hear you laugh, for the first time I see them laugh! God has given that to you! Stop holding it back!!" Well, yesterday (as I always do) I got tickled, so to speak, about something at church. Little did I know my husband was watching the people around me to see how they were reacting to me. Now, this is not to brag about myself, please my dear readers, don't take this wrong! A new lady walked up to me and said, "When you laugh, you light up an entire room!" She then gave me a loving hug and huge smile. She had no idea what she did for me at that moment with that simple sentence or the impact her words had on me! Another approached me and said, "You know, you are truly sent from Heaven!" I never remember anybody saying I was sent from Heaven! I left my church walking on a cloud of joy and happiness. I was not only LOVED, I was ACCEPTED into the body of Christ in that beautiful church. As we drove home, my husband took my hand looked at me and said this, "I was watching the people at church as you laughed and laughed. Not ONE shook their head, turned away from you, or gave each other 'oh my goodness' looks. They laughed WITH you!" Today, I praise God I have found people of like faith! I also thank God for new and true friends. Today, I understand who I am and why I am the way God has made me to be!!! How I would have cheated myself if I had tried to be someone else! But, not only would I have cheated myself but others and been a disappointment to God. I have learned if I am not liked it isn't me, but God Who fills me through and through that is being persecuted! Doesn't the word say, "Who are you to judge another's servant?" I am His and He is mine! I am not the only one who has been through this. God did not just speak and prepare me for this lesson for my own growth and benefit. Today, my precious reader, be who GOD made you to be! Be conformed to Him! He will surely lead you to those who will embrace and appreciate His handiwork in you! You are wondrously made and approved of by the most high God!!! You can't get higher approval than that! Don't cheat yourself and others by emulating someone else. You will never be satisfied that way and you will never fulfill your mighty destiny! Have a blessed day all day, my friend as you go about being the real you!
No comments:
Post a Comment