Don’t complain!!! Most especially don’t complain or murmur regarding leadership or align yourself with this form of rebellion. If you do, you are flowing in the same demonic spirit that caused the earth to open up and swallow a people. (see all of Numbers 16) This is how my morning conversation with the Lord and my daily Bible reading began.
“The righteousness of the upright shall deliver them: but transgressors shall be taken in their own naughtiness.” ~ Proverbs 11:6
“Hear my prayer, O God; give ear to the words of my mouth.” ~ Psalm 54:2
“And the chief priests accused him of many things: but he answered nothing.” And Pilate asked him again, saying, Answerest thou nothing? Behold how many things they witness against thee. But Jesus yet answered nothing; so that Pilate marveled. – Mark 15:3-5
“Then Pilate said unto them, why, what evil hath he done? And they cried out the more exceedingly. Crucify Him. And so Pilate, willing to content the people, released Barabbas unto them, and delivered Jesus, when he had scourged him, to be crucified. – Mark 15:15
God has really let me know without a doubt that He has indeed given “ear to the words of my mouth.” He has been speaking about my words, the words of others, and His Word.
He wants me to check and deal with what I allow into my heart, words of others and my own thoughts. He wants me to be careful and purposeful regarding what I allow myself to meditate on. The Holy Spirit has shown me specifics in my life that create and allow an atmosphere of sin to develop. This kind of environment breeds thoughts in my head and an attitude in my heart that eventually leads to words coming out of my mouth that displeases Him. I noticed while reading in Numbers that is said the sin of the “children of Israel provoked the Lord.” I believe although He is a God that loves and is long-suffering, that we provoke Him so much. We grieve the Holy Spirit. I am incredibly thankful for His mercy.
Over the years I have looked back at my life and wished I could go back and make changes. Why??? Because I wish there had been a different outcome to some areas of my life because hopefully I would live my life for a different result. I have regrets that involve every area: marriage, family, friends, money, job. Looking at ALL my regrets from this vantage point, it is easy to see where I took the wrong path that led to the undesired outcome. Hindsight is 20/20, they say…they are right. But it would be good if we could use our regrets to learn some valuable lessons.
We can never go back and change or take away, but we can from this moment forward keep the outcome in mind when we make our choices. Today is the day to stop living in the “past” and live our nows with eyes on the “eternal” and outcomes in the future that are pleasing…be it outcomes of good word or deed or meditation. Today we can make choices that will bear for us reward or bear for us regret in the future. If we chose correctly on this day we won’t have to wish we had done something or said something differently tomorrow.
As it regards this, I need to make decisions that are very purposeful – based on the Words of the Bible and everything; even the words of my mouth and my thoughts should mirror a Christ like life.
When Christ did not address the Chief Priest or Pilate to address the accusations of the people, His silence was very purposeful. I also believe that Pilate surely came to a place of regret that he was “willing to content the people” when it came to his moment of decision. I think, if we aren’t careful we will find ourselves standing before the altar guilty of that same sin and it could be consequences of a snap decision that we did not think through before we spoke or acted. Always, always our words and thoughts and actions just must line up with the Word.
Each person will be accountable for their own words, thoughts and deeds and as it said in Proverbs today, transgressors will be “taken in their own naughtiness.” We have definitely had our warning.
A few of the ways we use words that displease the Lord:
- Words of unbelief
- murmuring
- leading others to murmur
- slander
- evil report
- denying Christ
- complaining
- gossip
Thanks for reading. This is some of what the Holy Spirit spoke to me today through my daily reading of the One Year Bible.
So, what has the Lord been speaking to you today?
If anyone knows Melissa... 