Poor Me

Lord Why Can’t I . . . . ?

I know you’ve asked God this type of question before. We all have. Frequently it is about a small problem that has been bothering us for a while. I asked this recently. I have something bothering me which irks me considerably. Whenever it crops up, I end up grumbling and complaining to God about myself and my own attitude – which I know to be wrong. So this morning I asked God, “Lord, why can’t I stop all my grumbling and complaining about this?” His answer surprised me when He said, “Until you learn to cope with this very small problem, how can you move on?”

OUCH

It was the same when I felt that my gifting was not being used. I asked God, “Lord, will you release me to practice this gift again?” Again His answer stopped me in my tracks when He said, “I have never stopped you. Only you did that.”

OUCH OUCH

All this made me start thinking that my mindset needs to be more like His mindset. After all, the Word says in 1 Corinthians 2:16 “For who has known the mind of the Lord that he may instruct him?” But we have the mind of Christ.” Now, how do we do that, I wondered. Well, as Paul says in 2 Corinthians 10:5 “We demolish arguments and every pretension that sets itself up against the knowledge of God, and we take captive every thought to make it obedient to Christ.”

Then, before you speak, think hard about what you want to say and perhaps apply this little acronym to your problem.

T – is it true?

H – is it helpful?

I – is it inspiring?

N –is it necessary?

K – is it kind?

If none of these apply to your thoughts, then just don’t give them the air time they seem to be demanding.

I have no contact with IBM these days but their simple motto, when I worked for them in the 1960’s, used to be “THINK” – or as one wag there used to say, “Think – or thwim”. 

Take captive every thought and word before you utter them and think about it for a few seconds – simple really.

Any politicians listening?