Thought for Tuesday November 13th

November 13, 2012

Just Who Are You Trying To Fool

“No man for any considerable period, can wear one face to himself, and another to the multitude, without finally getting bewildered as to which may be true.”

-       Nathaniel Hawthorne

   Where can I go from your Spirit?  Where can I flee from your presence?  If I go up to the heaves, you are there; if I make my bed in the depths, you are there.  If I rise on the wings of the dawn, if I settle on the far side of the sea, even there your hand will guide me, your right hand will hold me fast.  If I say, ‘Surely the darkness will hide me and the light become night around me,’ even the darkness will not be dark to you; the night will shine like the day for darkness is a light to you.

Psalms 139:7-12

I think it is safe to say: we may be able to fool some of the people, some of the time: a few people all the time: but we can never fool God.

We can pretend to be someone we are not: we can hide our weakness and fears; we can even mask our hurts and pains to most of the people that we encounter, but God sees through every pretense, every mask and every fake maneuver that we can muster.

The reason we hide the real us from most people is fear.  We fear their judgments, their ridicule and their disapproval: but that does not quantify or explain why we also attempt to hide from God.

God is loving: forgiving, accepting and if anyone can help us overcome our weaknesses, faults and failings – wouldn’t it be Him? God knows at any given second, how many hairs are on our heads; how many ounces we may be overweight; what issues we are struggling with and what weaknesses are the most prevalent and exactly what sin related issue we might be dealing with: and He still loves us and is waiting with open arms for us to come and climb up into His lap and be real with Him and ask for His help.  Yet so often we are not willing to avail ourselves of this gracious and generous opportunity He is affording us.

And the million dollar question is way?

Who do we think we are fooling by not being real with God?  Do we really think there is anything He doesn’t know?  And do we really think we can make it through this thing called life without Him?

We need His help and He is ready and willing to give it.  The only one we are fooling if we think we can make it without Him is ourselves.

Today’s Prayer

Father, I know I can’t make it on my own.  I need you.  And I know that the me you and I see is not always the me that I want the world to see.  Help me to become a me that you would be proud for the world to see – a me that shows the world more of you within me.

“There is a candle in every soul

Some brightly burning, some dark and cold

There is a Spirit, who brings a fire

Ignites a candle and makes His home.

Frustrated brother see how he’s tired to

light his own candle some other way.

See now your sister she’s been robbed and lied to

Still holds a candle without a flame.

So carry your candle, run to the darkness

Seek out the lonely, the tired and worn.

Hold out your candle for all to see it,

Take your candle, go light your world.“

-  Lyrics from ‘Go Light Your World’ by Chris Rice