Thursday prayer & verses (11 03 2010)

Thought for the day

Have you ever been guilty of looking at others your own age and thinking, "Surely I can't look that old"? An elderly woman was sitting in the waiting room for her first appointment with a new dentist. She noticed his DDS diploma, which bore his full name.

Suddenly, she remembered that a tall, handsome, dark-haired boy with the same name had been in her high school class some 40-odd years ago. Could he be the same guy that she had a secret crush on, way back then?

Upon seeing him, however, she quickly discarded any such thought. This balding, gray-haired man with the deeply lined face was way, way too old to have been her classmate....or was he?

After he examined her teeth, she asked him if he had attended Morgan Park High School.

"Yes. Yes. I did...I'm a Morgan Mustang," he gleamed with pride.

"When did you graduate?" she asked.

He answered, "In 1959. Why do you ask?"

"You were in my class!" she exclaimed.

He looked at her closely...and then he asked, "What did you teach?"

It's easy, isn't it, to look at others our age and see all the changes they've gone through -- the wrinkles they added, the hair they've lost, and not realize that we have changed in exactly the same way? "Surely I can't look that old!"

It's easy to do the same thing spiritually. We see the spiritual "wrinkles" in others. We see what's lacking in their lives that ought to be there. "Surely I'm not that sinful!" And, all the while, they are looking at us, unaware of those problems in their own lives, but they see the same blemishes in our lives!

Jesus didn't use the imagery of wrinkles and hair loss. Rather, he used the imagery of dust and planks to make the same point.

"Why do you look at the speck of sawdust in your brother's eye and pay no attention to the plank in your own eye? How can you say to your brother, 'Let me take the speck out of your eye,' when all the time there is a plank in your own eye? You hypocrite, first take the plank out of your own eye, and then you will see clearly to remove the speck from your brother's eye." (Matthew 7:3-5)

Let's be honest enough to look in the mirror and say, "You know, I really do look that old!" And let's be honest enough to look into the mirror of God's Word and say, "You know, I really do have these sins in my life." Only when we use a mirror on ourselves rather than a magnifying glass on others will we begin to see some development in our spiritual life.

Verses

James 1:2-4

My brothers, consider yourselves fortunate when all kinds of trials come your way, for you know that when your faith succeeds in facing such trials, the result is the ability to endure. Make sure that your endurance carries you all the way without failing, so that you may be perfect and complete, lacking nothing.

Jeremiah 8:22

Is there no balm in Gilead, is there no physician there? Why then is there no recovery for the health of the daughter of my people?

James 5:7

Therefore be patient, brethren, until the coming of the Lord. See how the farmer waits for the precious fruit of the earth, waiting patiently for it until it receives the early and latter rain.

Matthew 6:7

"But when you pray, do not use vain repetitions as the heathen do. For they think that they will be heard for their many words.

Romans 8:31

When that is said, what follows? Who can be our adversary, if God is on our side?

Prayer

Jesus, Your sacrificial death on the cross became the tree of life for all who believe. It is the highest expression of love not only for those who bore the nails in your hands and shouted “Crucify, Crucify.” It is for all the generations who follow that were born under the sin curse. How grateful we are that You came from the glories of heaven to crush the head of the serpent, as You conquered death through Your miraculous resurrection so that we might be redeemed from the law of sin. We will partake of the tree of life in heaven because You partook of the cross of death here on earth. All glory and praise is due Your name. Amen.