Today's Devotional
October 22, 2007
Subject: Because God Knows What's Going On
Proverbs 18:17 - "He that is first in his own cause seemeth just; but his neighbour cometh and searcheth him."
If we paraphrase the verse above it would say something like this, "the first person to tell their side of the story seems right until someone starts asking questions." I saw a case of this yesterday.
Yesterday after church my daughters were at the playground with two of their cousins who are about the same age. As normally happens when the four of them are together, one of the four always seems shunned by the other three. This time it was my youngest, so she walks in to see daddy with tears streaming down her face and I already knew what was going on when she said, "Daddy, Caylah kicked me in the lip." Immediately I factored in her drama with what I knew they were doing outside and I responded. "Caisa, you should not have been walking over there where Caylah was swinging." Through her tears she looked at me with eyes that said, "man, he figured that out too quickly." She went back outside and started to play again.
I think we act like my daughter Caisa sometimes when it comes to God. We tell him our side of the story as though He really doesn't know the rest. "God these people wronged me and I was just minding my own business. Would you please strike them dead?" Of course we might not say it that harshly, but we do want Him to exact some strict judgment against them. Usually in these situations though God makes us think about what our role was. By His response to us He usually asks, "are you the problem?" I hate when He does that.
Today we might think that we have every right to complain about what happened to us, but God knows the whole story and when He starts asking us questions, it's going to expose the truth. Often that truth makes us see ourselves and the part we played in our current circumstances. So we might as well deal with the real issues or do like Caisa and just go back outside and keep on playing.
Carlen
