Day 260: Our Brother's Keeper

1 Corinthians 8:13

So if what I eat causes another believer to sin, I will never eat meat again as long as I live—for I don’t want to cause another believer to stumble.

Galatians 6:1-2

Dear brothers and sisters, if another believer is overcome by some sin, you who are godly should gently and humbly help that person back onto the right path. And be careful not to fall into the same temptation yourself. Share each other’s burdens, and in this way obey the law of Christ.

I know many of us have had the conversation about being our brother’s keeper. Meaning, is it our responsibility to take care of someone else? Are we responsible to make sure that someone stays on the right path, that we are doing whatever we can to help take care of them. Are we here to look out for one another? Before I say yes, I’m going to say that it is written pretty clear in the bible when Jesus tell us to love God and love one another. When He says love your neighbor as yourself, I believe that it covered us being our brother’s keeper. Meaning, we’re not going to let someone we love stumble and fall. We are not going to watch our neighbors fall and not do anything to help them up. What I’m getting at here is that we are indeed  our brother’s keeper, just like Jesus is for us. He picked us up at our lowest points and put on the path to righteousness. He gave us eternal life. Never did He judge us or tell us we were at fault, but he took on our burdens. He put Himself on the line for us. It is our responsibility as God-fearing and spiritual people to help lift one another up. We are to carry one another’s burdens not make the weight heavier or say they can handle it. I think sometimes we are so consumed with not wanting to get in someone’s business or letting  them figure it out on their own that we are letting people drown that need our help. People are reaching for us and we are waiting for them to sae themselves. We cannot just walk pass people that we know are in need and not help them, especially if we call ourselves Christians. I have seen too many people condemn others who are falling or have fallen into sin and done nothing to help them. It’s easy to talk about someone but how about we get down there with them and bring them out, or lend a hand to pick them up. The scripture says that we are to humbly and gently help them up. That means that we do not judge them or we do not blame them, because Jesus did not do that to us. We do not tell them they got themselves into the position they are in, we are to help them get back to where they were, to lead them back to Christ.

I talk about this subject in regards to sin because it is the one thing that I see people being condemned for the most. However, this is every area of our lives. When we truly love one another they way that God intends us to love we are constantly willing to put ourselves on the line for our brothers and sisters. We are not to put ourselves in danger or cause ourselves to be tempted but we are to take on  a selfless attitude, Share the burdens of our brothers and sisters because that’s what Jesus did for us. We never know how heavy it is for someone. We never know when they will crack or when too much is enough. Even Simon helped Jesus carry the cross to calvary.

All this to say, everybody needs somebody and we are that somebody. We are our brothers keeper and it is our job to lift one another up.

Reflection

1. Do you believe that you are your brother’s keeper?
2. Have you ever thought about the responsibility of caring for others, and taking on and sharing their burdens?

Prayer Time

Allow your answer to the above questions guide your prayer. Have a conversation with God about what we discussed today.

I love you and I hope you an amazing day or evening, be sure to share this with someone and come back tomorrow for Day 261!  

Day 195: I Choose Him

Psalms 119:30

I have chosen the faithful way; I have placed Your ordinances before me.

Recently I watched a sermon by Judah Smith, where He talked about choosing God. He talked about choosing God’s way even when it doesn’t make sense or we don’t understand what is happening or what is going on. We know that God has a way that is greater than ours, so we choose His.

Sometimes making that decision is hard, it’s hard because we can get to points in our lives when we feel like we’re stuck or we don’t know what’s going to happen, all we know is that we want God to move. We have to have enough strength and faith to trust in whatever move God makes. Whatever He decides to do is okay with us. Even if we don’t understand it, even when we don’t know why. We have so many struggles in our lives, we have ups and downs and sometimes life feels like an extreme roller coaster. There’s points of frustration, anger, anxiety, and seeking clarity. I’m sure we all have a story of where we’ve been in our lives and how God has brought us to where we are. We have stories of nearly giving up or wanting to just walk away from everything. Getting tired because we don’t want to keep fighting, we don’t want to keep crying, we don’t want to keep struggling.  But at the end of the day it all boils down to choosing Christ. Wanting to live in unity with Him no matter the struggles that come with that. At the end of the day it’s about Him, it’s about finding hope and looking towards Him, because that’s where it all leads to. When alls said and done and we’re spending eternity with Christ it’ll all be worth it. When we receive that blessing we’ve been waiting on and praying about; all the fighting, all of the crying, the tears, and heartache. It will all be worth it, because no matter what was going on in our lives we decided to choose Him and we kept choosing Him.

All this to say, life is rough man, it’s hard. Not every moment is hard but when it rains it pours. But no matter what, keep choosing Christ, even when it’s hard and it doesn’t make sense choose Him. It will all be worth it and it will all work out in the end.

Reflection

1. Are you going through anything right now where you feel like you can’t take it?
2. Choose Him, make the choice not to be defeated but to find even a glimpse of hope in Him. Everything is going to be alright. It’ll all workout.

Prayer Time

Take the time today to talk to God about what you’re going through, Have an honest conversation with Him and hold nothing back. Find peace and hope in Him.

I love you, and I hope you have an amazing day or evening. Be sure to share this with someone and come back tomorrow for Day 196!

Day 47: Smoke and Mirrors

Things are never as they seem to be, and that can be good or bad, depending on the situation and how we look at it. . We as young adults are constantly finding out what is real and what is not. We are constantly trying to sort through what is real, and what seems to be real. We are at a point in our life, where we are starting to realize, “my parents were right”. But more importantly we are growing in Christ and gaining discernment so we can see through the smoke and mirrors and see the truth. Many people use the term Smoke and mirrors as a bad thing, but I’m going to bend that definition a bit and say that things are not always as they seem.

Matthew 7:15

“Beware of false prophets, who come to you in sheep’s clothing but inwardly are ravenous wolves. You will recognize them by their fruits. Are grapes gathered from thorn bushes, or figs from thistles? So, every healthy tree bears good fruit, but the diseased tree bears bad fruit. A healthy tree cannot bear bad fruit, nor can a diseased tree bear good fruit. Every tree that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire. Thus you will recognize them by their fruits.

2 Corinthians 4:18

So we don't look at the troubles we can see now; rather, we fix our gaze on things that cannot be seen. For the things we see now will soon be gone, but the things we cannot see will last forever.

There are a couple of points to make today. We will start with the obvious. Many of us have grown up hearing the scripture, beware of wolves in sheep’s clothing. Meaning don’t be fooled by people pretending to be something they are not. In the scripture Jesus is speaking these words, He is telling the people to beware of the false prophets, they look good and they sound good but that doesn’t always mean it’s good for us. Growing up my mom would always tell us, “Everything that glitters ain’t gold.” Just because something looks good doesn’t mean it is. Looks can be deceiving as we all know. Jesus goes on to tell the people that we will recognize them by their fruits. A healthy tree does not produce bad fruit, and an unhealthy tree cannot produce good fruit. Sometimes we are in the presence of a bad tree but are so caught up in it’s beauty that we don’t realize the toxic fruit it's bearing. We must pay attention to the things and people around us, the people we look up to and the people we let in our lives. People are great at talking but when the actions and words of a person collide, we have a problem.

I am not saying that everyone we meet is out to get us, we just have to wise to see through the deception. God gives us vision to see beyond the foolishness. We look past the moving lips, and the distractions to see the truth. God also gave us parents with wisdom, as hard as it may be, most of the time they are right in these situations.

I know for a fact my mom was right about fake friends. I didn’t listen and had to come back and apologize. Because mom was right all along. I realized that God didn’t give me parents just so they could tell me what to do, they are wiser than me, and I had to learn to listen to the words they were speaking to me, even when they were hard to swallow.

-Dyamond

The hard thing about this is that sometimes we get attached to the things that we know are no good for us. The most common things are relationships, when our hearts and feelings are invested, it’s hard to let go. I’m pretty sure many of us know this from experience, I know I do. We can know that the person we are with is only their to drain us, and not to do good by us; they look good, they feel good, they make us feel good, what they say is good, but there’s something off and we try to act like we don’t know what it is. We don’t even have to look that deep to know they are sheep dressed in wolves clothing, it’s right in front of our face. Everything pleasurable isn’t ethical.

God gives us vision sometimes we just choose not to see. Smoke and mirrors look good to us, we’d rather not know the truth because it’s too deep, it will hurt too bad. We have to look pass our own pain sometimes to see the bigger picture. It hurts right now but I promise it’s better now than later, and it won’t last forever, I can promise you that. It will work together for our good, because God has our back. Which brings me to my next point. In life, everything isn’t what it seems.

Romans 8:28 says, And we know that for those who love God all things work together for good, for those who are called according to his purpose.

Sometimes we look at all the things going on in our life and cannot understand how it can ever get any  better. But their is a bigger picture, a large mural actually. God sees that bigger picture, He painted it. Right now we only see a small portion of it, and we can’t quite make out what it is yet. But the more we grow, the more we lean into God, and trust that there is more to what the physical eye can see that image will start to grow. Eventually we will see the big picture and we will understand that we had to go through some valleys, and some dark places to get to where we are. Nothing is as it seems. It may look like we are being punished, it may look like nothing is getting better, but trust me God is behind it all. He’s directing us, and strengthening us, we are growing with Him. So when He does that big reveal we will understand that He was there the whole way, we will discover a path or a pattern. We had to go through that rough time to get to where we are, we had to reach that stumbling block, to know that God won’t let us fall. We had to reach that dead end to know that God can make a way out of no way. It’s all working out, it’s all coming together, we just have to trust Him. We must know that even though it’s not as it seems, or life isn’t going the way it should go, it’s going the way God planned. It will work out, it will be okay.

Reflection

1. Is there anyone wolves in your life dressed in sheep's clothing?
2. Based on your previous answer, are you willing to let them go?
3. Is there something or someone in your life that you know is not good for you, but you are choosing to overlook because you are too attached, or letting them or it go will hurt too bad? These are the things or people that you probably did not mention in question one. Think about it before you answer, once you have that answer, refer to question two.
4. Repeat these four words, “God really loves me.”
   
   

Prayer Time

Allow your answers to the above questions guide your prayer. If there are people in your life or things in your life holding you back give it to God. Talk to Him about the things you want to hide from Him or shy away from today. Talk to Him about the bigger picture and what that is, allow God into your heart, listen for what He is saying to you. Be honest with God, remember that prayer is just a conversation with God. Some conversations are harder than others and this might be one of those, but have it anyway. He’s listening not judging, just talk to Him, listen for a response, and obey His words.

I hope you have an amazing day or evening, rest in His presence today. I love you so much. Make sure you come back tomorrow for day 48! And share this with a friend!