Where there is no “moral gravity” – that is, no force that draws us to the center – there is spiritual weightlessness. We float on feelings that will carry us where we never meant to go; we bubble with emotional experiences that we often take for spiritual ones; and we are puffed up with pride. Instead of seriousness, there is foolishness. Instead of gravity, flippancy. Sentimentality takes the place of theology. Our reference point will never serve to keep our feet on solid rock, for our reference point, until we answer God’s call, is merely ourselves. We cannot possibly tell which end is up. Paul calls them fools who “…measure themselves by themselves, to find in themselves their own standard of comparison!”
Elisabeth Elliot

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Difficult People

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#1 · December 3, 2003, 6:06 pm

Posted by: Asn <Asn@...>

My command is this: Love each other as I have loved you. John 15:12

All of us have difficult people in our lives. There are a few in mine (no, you're not one of them), and I'm rather certain I'm on a few lists myself. So how do we handle the difficult people in our lives? As I see it, we have three choices:

1. We can try to fix them. This tends to be our favorite choice but, unfortunately, the least effective. People are unique and they are inclined to begrudge being forced into someone else's mold, no matter how "right" that mold may be. Jesus addressed this option in Matthew 7.

2. We can resent them. Unforgiveness becomes a grudge, which leads to resentment, bitterness and hatred. The trouble is that when we harbor unforgiveness against someone else, we are the ones held in bondage by that unforgiveness, and it can have detrimental effects on our physical bodies. Jesus addressed this option in Mark 11.

3. We can seek to understand them. Understanding them won't necessarily make them easy to deal with, but it will certainly make them much more bearable. For one thing, it will help us see them as a person whom God loves and Jesus died for, rather than seeing them as evil. You have a choice; I encourage you to seek to understand them as you would want to be understood. (See Mark 12:33)

Heavenly Father, please help me to understand the people You have placed in my life and to love them as deeply and personally as You have loved me. Please forgive me if I've held unforgiveness toward anyone; I release them and I receive Your release, in Jesus' name. Amen.

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