Ladies Bible STudy for April 4th

by | Apr 4, 2011

Janet Scott

James 3:17-18

“But the wisdom that comes from heaven is first of all pure; then peace-loving, considerate, submissive, full of mercy and good fruit, impartial and sincere. Peacemakers who sow in peace raise a harvest of righteousness.”-

Those are some of the characteristics I would most often prefer the people close to me would possess and for the longest time I poured my heart out to God begging Him to change them.  After all those are Godly characteristics so how could it not be the will of God to change the people I had to deal with on a regular basis so they could be more “godly”, it seemed to make a LOT of sense to me that I was praying for their good, well, and mine if they would just change.  Then one day when I was pouring my heart out to God and pleading my case, in that moment where I paused for a breath He asked, “what about you”?  What?  ME?  So I tried to explain that if these other people would change and this circumstance would change then well, I probably wouldn’t need to because it would all be fixed.  Somehow God wasn’t buying all of that and He just really impressed on me that I can’t wait for everyone else to change, He even had Bill tell me one day to “stop waiting for other people to change and behave the way we all know they should.”  That isn’t my problem! I AM!!! 

Once I started praying that God would change me instead of everyone else, and mind you I still have to do it everyday to this day, things started falling into place and the key people in my life were moving forward as well.  No, not everyone around me has changed but my attitude toward them and the circumstances is changing!  The key wasn’t in “fixing” everyone else, the key was asking God to create a clean heart and a right spirit within me.  I have to admit that it isn’t always easy because the human spirit in me just wants to feel justified and vindicated for wrongs said or done to me, but when I have that attitude it holds onto the anger and frustration of the situation. 

When I allow God to change ME on the inside instead I have peace and the situation doesn’t rule my day!  If you have a situation or a person in your life that you just know needs to change I would encourage you to pray for that situation or person, not what needs to be changed in your eyes but in God’s eyes but at the same time pray that He will heal your heart and mind about it all and create a clean heart and a right spirit within you and then rest in His peace that He WILL take care of it all in His time! He truly does have your best interest at heart!

 Quote for the day: Happiness is an attitude.  We either make ourselves miserable, or happy and strong.  The amount of work is the same.  ~Francesca Reigler

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