November 29, 2007

watch Your words spread hope like fire

"Don't let people do that to you, put you on a pedestal like that. You all have a single Teacher, and you are all classmates. Don't set people up as experts over your life, letting them tell you what to do. Save that authority for God; let Him tell you what to do. No one else should carry the title of 'Father'; you have only one Father, and He's in Heaven. And don't let people maneuver you into taking charge of them. There is only one Life-Leader for you and them--Christ." [Matthew 23:8-10] The Message Remix

Have you ever felt like you were going insane but felt completely at peace all at once? That's my life tonight. God is moving, and I'm being prepared for big things. The peace keeps me calm regarding the edge I'm standing on, but the excitement keeps me up at 2am writing this.

[Don't set people up as experts over your life, letting them tell you what to do. Save that authority for God; let Him tell you what to do]
I have a habit of being pretty impressionable. When I hear ideas I like, I tend to adopt them as my own fairly quickly. I'm working on that, though. By automatically latching on to someone else's beliefs, I'm letting that person have authority over what I believe.
It's good to get advice from people. I need advice. I'm never sure about much in my life, if I'm making the right decisions, if I'm following someone's directions correctly, if I'm looking dumb, etc. I want a good deal of reassurance in my life. What I need, though, is to trust that God is getting me through my patches of insecurity so that I can complete the tasks He needs me to do. What's bad is when you rely on one person (or a couple people) all of the time for advice, because at that point, you've given them authority over your decisions. When you're at a point where you can't make a decision without some certain person's advice, they have more authority than God does.

[And don't let people maneuver you into taking charge of them. There is only one Life-Leader for you and them--Christ]
So here's the other side. I don't know about you, but I like feeling important. I like feeling responsible for things, I like feeling needed, I like feeling like my opinion or advice matters. It doesn't happen very often, which is probably a good thing. I'm one of the youngest in my group of friends and somehow that actually affects the amount of advice I feel like I am able to give out. Anyways--my point is that if you're one of those people that everyone goes to advice for, you've got to realize that it's good to give your perspective and advice, but when you become that person's sole support and leader, you're taking God's place in their life. Don't let that feeling of importance convince you that you know just as much as God does. The ultimate authority belongs to Him. The ultimate advice comes from Him.

I have to say that I don't know why this is the topic of my blog tonight. This really isn't something I've been dwelling on or worried about lately. I guess a part of it is dealing with the fact that I really do feel like God is about to do something huge in my life (I'm not sure if it's going to be outward or mostly an inner thing), and I'm realizing that I've given people in my life in the past a little bit more authority than they deserved.

2 comments:

Jennica said...

hooray for random late night posts! I had one of those too. I also understand what your saying about giving some people way too much authority over your life.

I'm so excited to see God move in a big way soon! I can't wait to see His plan for you EXPLODE into action!

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