Annoying Card

I was reading in 1st Samuel 12 last night and in the story Samuel is speaking to Saul, the new King, and the people of Israel. He lets them know they sinned because they wanted a King to rule over them more than wanting God as their ruler.
As always I suggest you read the story for all the details. Bottom line is Samuel does not agree with what they did and calls it what it was, sin.
The teaching point here is how he ends his conversation with the people.
1 Samuel 12:23 As for me, far be it from me that I should sin against the LORD by failing to pray for you. And I will teach you the way that is good and right.
You see it doesn’t matter what we think or feel about a person or what they are doing the only thing that matters is God’s will for their life. Our only responsibility is to pray God’s will for our brothers and sisters whether they are sinning in God’s eyes or not.
I want to focus on how we treat our brothers and sisters. Do we pray for them from a heart of how we feel about them or about what God’s heart is for them? Especially when they are doing something we don’t agree with.
Sometimes our brothers and sisters, like Saul, are just being down right disobedient. Other times they just aren’t doing what we think they should but not necessarily wrong.
God’s will can look pretty weird at times from the human perspective.
It’s important that we love each other through the hard times and not get judgmental.
I try to use the saying “remember what it was like in the darkness when you get to the light”
Years ago I was very involved with the church I attended. I worked in the nursery, with the youth; I taught Sunday school and was the president of the Woman's ministry. At church I seemed to have it all together but at home my life was a mess.
My teenagers were out of control and my marriage was falling apart.
I got a call one day from the superintendent of the Sunday school department who was also a pastor. I assumed he was calling to tell me about a meeting but I was wrong.
He called to tell me “he heard” I was getting a divorce and pretty much fired me from all my responsibilities.
Now hear my heart Gems, I’m not giving this example to bash the church, the truth is I think when your world is falling apart it’s a good idea to step down from leadership and allow yourself time to heal. My problem was the hurtful and insensitive way they did it.
They said “they heard” so at this point they didn’t even know if it was true. Then they fired me instead of asking what they could do to help. There was no offer of prayer or assistance.
I felt like an orphan as I had been a part of this church for years and to me they were family.
Gems we are family! We are one church, one bride one people.
We have to put aside our opinions and feelings and ask God how He wants us to pray.
This Sunday I at the church and at the end of the service our pastor told us to think of a person who gets on our nerves, you know the person you try not to make eye contact with or avoid if you see them in the grocery store.
We were to write their name on a 3x5 card, pray for the person and ask the Holy Spirit for the power to love them.
After we did that we were supposed to lay the card down at the cross in front of the church.
I sat there for a few minutes and could not think of anyone's name to write on the card.
Don’t get me wrong other times in my life I could have someone’s name in a second and maybe next week I would too but for that moment I could not think of anyone.
I should have left well enough alone but NOOOO I got on my pride horse and started telling myself how much I’ve grown and how I have learned to love people and bla bla bla.
That night I was still in my pride world and had the audacity to bring it up to the Lord.
I actually brought it to His attention!
I said “Lord, I could not think of anyone to put on that annoying card” (pat on the back) and the Lord said “that’s good that you couldn’t think of anyone to write on that card but what makes you think your name wasn’t on plenty of other peoples cards?” OUCH!!
I had to really take that in for a minute. After I shut my mouth I asked the Lord to forgive me and I prayed that the Holy Spirit would convict me when I was becoming the annoying name on someones card.
It’s easy to get self righteous when you’re trying to walk in obedience, when you have reached the light so to speak. As I said don’t forget what it was like in the darkness.
I’m not saying we should condone bad behavior but conviction is the Holy Spirit’s job and judgment belongs to God.
One way to become the annoying person is to become judgmental to people who need us.
We need to pray God’s will for our brothers and sisters in love. If you can’t get the love in your own strength that’s completely understandable that’s why we have the power of the Holy Spirit. We need to have faith in each other.
Paul writes in Philippians 1:6(Amplified Bible)
And I am convinced and sure of this very thing, that He Who began a good work in you will continue until the day of Jesus Christ [right up to the time of His return], developing [that good work] and perfecting and bringing it to full completion in you.
Notice Paul doesn’t say the good work in me but in you. We often quote that verse “He who began a good work in me” but that’s not what Paul said.
He believed in people no matter where they were in their spiritual journey. He believed God would complete His work (not ours) in people.
Verse 8 God can testify how I long for all of you with the affection of Christ Jesus.
Paul loved people deeply notice he says with the affection of Christ. He’s comparing his love to Christ's love! That’s a pretty deep love.
It wasn’t like everyone was loving him back. In case you don’t know Paul’s writing this from prison and the crime was preaching the gospel. Some people preached the word just to get Paul in trouble.
Phil 1:15-17 It's true that some here preach Christ because with me out of the way, they think they'll step right into the spotlight. But the others do it with the best heart in the world. One group is motivated by pure love, knowing that I am here defending the Message, wanting to help. The others, now that I'm out of the picture, are merely greedy, hoping to get something out of it for themselves. Their motives are bad. They see me as their competition, and so the worse it goes for me, the better—they think—for them. (Message Bible)
If anyone had the right to pull the self righteous card it was Paul but he stayed focused on the task at hand, God’s will.
So Gems next time you come down too hard on your brother or sister ask forgiveness and pray for them.
Take it from me don’t start telling God what a great job your doing or you may just end up on the annoying card.
Use wisdom. James 3:17-18 But the wisdom that comes from heaven is first of all pure; then peace-loving, considerate, submissive, full of mercy and good fruit, impartial and sincere. Peacemakers who sow in peace raise a harvest of righteousness.