Refining...Submitting to God in All Things

The Lord is good and He teaches us in various ways to know Him, His ways, and the discipline of a life that follows Jesus. I just want to take a minute here and say how valuable it is to understand and know the Lord...it is worth more than anything else this world has to offer. In fact, knowing the Lord Himself IS eternal life..."This is eternal life, that they may know You, the only true God and Jesus Christ whom You have sent," John 17:3. Proverbs 16:16 says, "How much better it is to get wisdom than gold! And to get understanding is to be chosen above silver."

With that being said, I will share with you how the Lord taught me wisdom from a practical life lesson yesterday. With moving and a whole bunch of other things going on in my life right now, I have been stressed out and overwhelmed. Being scheduled to work yesterday, I began to panic thinking about how I was going to get everything done that I needed to. I decided that calling off work was a good idea...I hardly ever do it. Everybody else does it. I just needed time. So I called off and was ever so slightly misleading in my reasoning for calling off. After I hung up, I immediately felt no relief and wished I hadn't called off, I felt dishonest. But everyone else does it all the time, I told myself. The Lord stirred my heart...its still dishonesty. But I deserve it! Its totally okay! The Lord stirred..."consider your ways..." Hmmmm. I thought if I ignored my thoughts, I would feel better and forget about it...no big deal. (Note to reader--If you are trying to not feel bad about something you have done wrong, DO NOT try to distract yourself by reading the bible...it doesn't work). I went outside to spend some time reading my bible as I do every morning. And this is what I read: "He whose ear listens to the life-giving reproof will dwell among the wise. He who neglects discipline despises himself, but he who listens to reproof acquires understanding. The fear of the Lord is the instruction for wisdom, and before honor comes humility." (Proverbs 15:31-33). So much for trying to ignore my thoughts!!! The Lord was convicting me to be disciplined by Him, to humble myself, and to honor the Lord first in my life.

What happened next involved me humbling myself to call my work back and confessing that I had been misleading, and apologize that I did not hold myself to the standard that I usually place on myself. Talk about swallowing my pride...but I felt amazingly better afterwards even though my co-workers probably think I am insane. A couple valuable lessons have been learned for me--to humble myself is choosing to be wise, choosing to be disciplined is wisdom, and when I fall short and sin..."Against You and You only have I sinned..." (Psalm 51:4). What I hope others can learn from this is...christians DO make mistakes, but when we do...it is to be an example to show the greatness of God, His mercy and love, and that we forsake all things to live a blessed life for Him. If we are not faithful in the small, insignificant things in life...how can we ever think we will be faithful to Him in the big things???