Sunday, August 9, 2015

Would Timothy Have Avoided Us?


What is the antidote?

Do you not recognise our society- NO, let's make this personal...do we recognise OURSELVES in this passage?  Make a list and be honest.  Painfully honest, we can see much of ourselves and our conforming to the world in our actions.

Before that becomes a burden of guilt, let's confess this quickly (these are the last days) and give our heart away to one who has covered all our sin.  Ask the Holy Spirit to mold us into the person that honors God.


Arrogance


I had two instances today where scripture pointed to this word: Arrogance.  In the first case, it was in 1 Corinthians 12 and Paul was schooling the church there about how they had viewed themselves are greater than one another because of the spiritual gifts imparted.  Tonight in our family bible study Jacob finished up Malachi and the beginning of that chapter talks about the arrogant being trampled.

Our blind spots allow us to overlook areas where we are arrogant, think more highly of ourselves than we should and miss social cues that might allow us to see ourselves better.

A quick fix for this would be to have someone follow you around for a day and video record you.  You would probably wince at watching such a brutally honest outside view- "Is THAT what I sound like?" "Wow, that was not what I looked like was it?" and "I didn't intend to come off that way!"

What makes me arrogant?  Where is the pride and the superiority in my life?  Who do I see as inferior and why?  Arrogance is both the act of boasting and smallness, it is insecurity and blind spots.  Nobody sets out to be arrogant, it seems to happen when others don't recognise and affirm that we have value- so we claim it for ourselves.