More Powerful Than a Ring

At the bank today, I had to sit down with a banker to order checks. The guy had that look in his eye and immediately started complementing me. The complements kept on coming, "I like your earrings, you smell good, wow you just had a baby?!" I tried to ignore it because I'm not very good at responding well to men who are inappropriate. I usually just get scared and let them say things that cross boundaries and just smile. I really didn't want to end up in another situation where I felt like I was being taken advantage of, even just verbally. And no longer did I have a ring on my finger I could obnoxiously flash around. God, I prayed silently, please protect me.

I've had the same job as the banker before so I wasn't surprised he was asking a million questions, getting really personal, and otherwise "building repor" or so they call it. After asking all those questions, he found something in common with me. Great, I sarcastically thought, he was also in the middle of a divorce. He starting sharing an awful lot about his story and I finally interrupted him and said, "Hey do you have anyone to talk to about this?" He said he had a therapist. I asked if his therapist prayed with him, and he awkwardly replied, "no," before he said, "Hey I live really close, if you ever want to have coffee and talk." I opened my mouth and let God take over. "No," I quickly responded, "You need to be a whole person before you can do that with someone, and so do I. And you need a therapist, or counselor, who prays with you because you and I both know how much pain this is. And you need someone who can identify the hurt, the lie, and the spirit behind that hurt, then kill it and restore you to the truth. God needs you to know the truth; that he loves you and this can and will be used for the good if you let him." I was preaching to myself as the same time. He seemed to quickly relinquish that mysterious power some guys possess when they see a conquest in front of them. Good, I laughed mentally, he's too freaked out by my bold faith now to bother me.

I went home smiling and so thankful that I had something more powerful than a flashing ring to protect me. I had a God who could speak through me with power and authority.

Blessing and Cursing

James 3:9-11

New International Version (NIV)

 "⁹ With the tongue we praise our Lord and Father, and with it we curse human beings, who have been made in God’s likeness. ¹⁰ Out of the same mouth come praise and cursing. My brothers and sisters, this should not be. ¹¹ Can both fresh water and salt water flow from the same spring?"

I am being convicted right now. In my last post I was describing how irritating it is to be looked down on because my current circumstances make it easy to judge me. However, the more I thought about,talked about, and recognized all the looks and all the awkward questions, the more I focused on all that negativity. I began to allow the lies about me become a part of me. If I know that God is for me and I know that he thinks highly of me, than that should be all that matters. And I know that the more I believe in who I am based on what he says, the more those lies will go unnoticed or at least the be rendered powerless. 

Not only was I allowing myself to take part in cursing myself, I was becoming biter. Thanks to a friend, I read, "1 Pet 4:12-14 (Phi) And now, dear friends of mine, I beg you not to be unduly alarmed at the fiery ordeals which come to test your faith, as though this were some abnormal experience. " I kept thinking, ugh,  this is so unfair, and it is! Yet the more I thought about how unfair this all is, the more I thought about how upset I am at the person that has put me here. I want JUSTICE. Then, isn't there a judge here already? For every person, isn't it between them and God? It's true, and so I can't curse any man that is hurting me either. Blessing should only be on my lips for myself, and for anyone else. 


"If the cross was all he did for me, it'd be enough," was what a friend said at church last week, and oh was she right. God's promise to redeem my life is already in work, and he will not take advantage of me. I can't compare him to all those that have. He will not lie. He will not trick me. He will not take back his salvation. I can't care about what anyone thinks because God is still God, and the Jesus is still risen.