October 16 / Proverbs 16 / Matthew 16

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Proverbs 16:2

All paths of people are pure in their own eyes, but Yahweh measures the motives.

The Lord examines your motives.

It’s not what we do as much as why we do it.

This is truth>>God looks at our hearts and our inner reasons for doing what we do.  You may think you are pure awesomeness, or awesome pureness, because you help the poor, or are involved in ministry, or lead a group,  but deep down you know you’re doing this for some sort of favor or approval, not out of love for Jesus.

We are already pure awesomeness, and for only one reason–Jesus Christ.  The great insane truth is that God loves you first. From the start. From before the start! And there’s nothing you can do about it. You can reject and distance yourself from Him relationally, but there’s nothing you can do to make Him love you less.  You can even grieve and sadden Him, but separate yourself from His love? Nope.  Jesus, we believe, has two stances>>open-armed, or embracing you.

God thinks you’re wonderful because He just does.  Because He is love and He’s crazy about you.  Living from that truth will wooingly compel you to get to know Him, love Him, live for Him, and obey Him.  You’ll realize the deeper, what-you’ve-been-missing Life that you’ve possibly never seen or experienced before.

We have been granted the power to create our own reality in a sense.  How we think, determines how we act, which over time, determines our character and destiny.

Again, if you’re obeying in order to earn, then you are off.  You’re missing the beautiful point.  The point is to live in the delight of the Father.

Matthew 16:17

You are blessed because my Father in heaven revealed this to you.  You did not learn this from human beings.

We do not need a human being to tell us truth, to show us God, tho that can and does happen.  In fact, how often have human beings messed up the truth and severely hurt people?

Here, Jesus asks, “Who do people say that I am?”  And they answer, “John the Baptist, Elijah, Jeremiah, some other prophet.” What if He stopped there?  “Oh interesting.  That’s cool.  Well, see you guys tomorrow!”  How detrimental it would have been if He had not followed up with, “But what about you? Who do you say I am?”  Yet how many times do we do this?  We’re content to let people form their view of Jesus based on so many others, without the uber important follow up of, “But what about you? Who do you think He is?”

Most people, in some form, answer that Jesus is “all those hypocrites in those churches” or He is “just like my dad.”  But never really seeking out from the Source who He is.

Think about this.

Really?

This makes about as much sense as saying Martin Luther King was a man of violence because you heard about a guy wearing an MLK t-shirt was arrested for shooting someone.  “No, I’ve never read any of Dr. King’s writings, but I don’t need to because I see what some of his supporters do.

My my my.

The Holy Spirit is ready and available to speak to every person directly. Thru your spirt in seeking Him, thru Scripture, thru nature…

How much you are willing to give up for something shows how much you value it.

How much effort are you putting into listening to God?

And if that worn out pushback of “I don’t have time” is surfacing yet again, remember that “I don’t have time for something” really just means “I value something else more.”

What do you value more than connecting to and hearing from God?

We promise you it is worth great effort.

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