One summer I was mowing the yard with my mom and at some point I heard her yell “run!” I quickly abandoned the lawnmower and ran up the hill and around the house and opened the back door for my mother who was running significantly slower than I was. I helped her into the house and got her something to drink after she claimed down. I didn’t see the threat before running but I didn’t need to and as it turned out as my assumption regarding the reason behind her instruction was correct.
She had managed to disturb some insects, I’m not sure if they were yellow jackets or hornets but I have seen those living in the ground before and this was not the first time they have gotten angry with us. In the past there had been some in another location but this time they lived in a place we didn’t see before.
She was stung once on her foot but I wasn’t hurt at all and since it looked it was going to rain later on that day (which is actually one of the reasons why we were mowing in the first place) both of our lawnmowers had to be brought back inside the shed. I waited until I thought the bees or whatever they where calmed down somewhat and slowly walked down the hill with some wasp killer. I saw the insects still buzzing around the one of the lawnmowers that we had abandoned down the hill and I decided to spray them from a safe distance and then run back up the hill and come back for the lawnmowers later. I actually ended up spraying them more than once before I was able to safely get the lawnmowers because although many seemed dead after spraying more would come back and swam around the lawnmower my mom had left behind as if it was the threat when in reality it was me.
I think as believers in God we may often have a tendency to be like those bees. We are told to “Stay sober, stay alert! Your enemy, the Adversary, stalks about like a roaring lion looking for someone to devour.” 1 Peter 5:8. However we often don’t heed this advice “But avoid stupid controversies, genealogies, quarrels and fights about the Torah; because they are worthless and futile. Warn a divisive person once, then a second time; and after that, have nothing more to do with him.” Titus 3:9-10 I’ve seen this problem on Facebook a lot and other places. As people we don’t always seem to know when to let go of trivial things such as speculation and opinions regarding things God doesn’t clearly mention one way or the other or know how to prioritize our time. And even regarding important things such as the law we can focus more on that than on who gave the law in the first place.
We maybe well meaning in our attempts to fix everything we now know or consider to be wrong. But, while we are attacking minor differences of opinion or even serious errors which are important the Devil can be killing us off one by one with the poison of sin that we don’t even see it or try to change because we are too busy attacking others to notice the truth of God’s love can be missing from our own hearts. “I say to you that many will come from east and west, and recline at the table with Abraham, Isaac and Jacob in the kingdom of heaven; but the sons of the kingdom will be cast out into the outer darkness; in that place there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.” Matthew 8:11-12.
The biggest problem those who believe in God face is not the stuff “out there” in there world or what non-believers in God do or even what some Messianics, Christians, or people of other faiths are or are not doing right, it is our own hearts. We can easily end up spiritually dead because we are too busy attacking the wrong thing. The truth is important and yes we need to share that however we need to focus on our own relationship with God first and the spirit in which we present the truth instead of assuming our mindset could not be part of the problem responsible for spiritual death.
“Also, to some who were relying on their own righteousness and looking down on everyone else, he told this parable: ‘Two men went up to the Temple to pray, one a Parush and the other a tax-collector. The Parush stood and prayed to himself, ‘O God! I thank you that I am not like the rest of humanity — greedy, dishonest, immoral, or like this tax-collector! I fast twice a week, I pay tithes on my entire income, . . . ’ But the tax-collector, standing far off, would not even raise his eyes toward heaven, but beat his breast and said, ‘God! Have mercy on me, sinner that I am!’ I tell you, this man went down to his home right with God rather than the other. For everyone who exalts himself will be humbled, but everyone who humbles himself will be exalted.” Luke 18:9-14 11. We to stop blaming everyone and everything else for the lack of spiritual life, ask if ourselves if own poor priorities are our real problem.
