Skip to main content

Thursday... How do we handle it?


Thursday... How do we handle it? 

How do we handle advice? Especially if we didn't ask for it? My dad always said, "Advice not asked for stinks." I've tried to live by that when I am thinking about giving advice when the other person hasn't asked for it. But it may be a good thing for us to listen. God speaks to us in so many different ways.

I love the story in the last chapter of John where the disciples after Jesus had been killed and then He had showed Himself to them and it seemed like they didn't know what to do so they went back to what they knew to do, they went fishing. That is what they did before Jesus ask them to follow Him. They did what they knew to do but they were having a difficult time catching fish.

John 21:3b (NLT) says, "So they went out in the boat, but they caught nothing."

Verse 4 goes on, "At dawn Jesus was standing on the beach, but the disciples couldn't see who he was." Verse 5, "He called out, 'Fellows, have you caught any fish? 'No', they replied."

Here was this guy on the beach yelling out to them. They didn't know who he was. Then it happened. In verse 6, this unknown guy, "Then he said, "Throw out your nets on the right-hand side of the boat, and you'll get some." Now how would we handle that?

We can be so proud, can't we? "I'm the pro here. What does he think he is doing."

Bur here is the great thing. Verse 6 continues, "So they did, and they couldn't haul in the net because there were so many fish in it."

Verse 7, "Then the disciple Jesus loved said to Peter, 'It is the Lord!'"

Pride could have gotten in the way of them catching fish. 11b said, "There were 153 large fish, and yet the net hadn't broken."

Proverbs 11:2 (NIRV) says, "When pride comes, shame follows. But wisdom comes to those who are not proud."

We can have such high opinion of our self and what we can accomplish. Confidence is important but so is humility.

King David said in Psalm 71:1-3, "Lord, I have gone to you for safety. Let me never be put to shame, You do what is right, so save me and help me." Now that is humility. He goes on, "Be my rock of safety that I can always go to. Give the command to save me. You are my rock and my fort." 

But the key is, we need to listen. And they did even though they didn't know it was Jesus. 

So let's not let pride get in the way. Remember, "But wisdom comes to whose who are not proud."  Listen, it might be the Lord who is speaking to you through that person. Yes, yes! #todaysbeginning  


  


Comments

Popular posts from this blog

Thursday... Maybe we need this word today.

Psalm 57:1b (NIRV), "There I will stay until the danger is gone." Thursday... Maybe we need this word today. There are words in life that give us confidence no matter what we are facing. Now we have to believe them in order for them to have an impact. David wrote Psalm 57 while he was in a cave hiding from Saul who wanted to kill him and he says in the last part of verse 1, "There I will stay." It was a safe place and Saul didn't know that he was there. But he doesn't stop there. With confidence he said, "There I will stay until." And until is definitely a word of faith and confidence. "There I will stay until the danger is gone." Do we need that today? Let me give you the whole verse. In verse 1 David says, "Have mercy on me, God. Have mercy on me." And that is a great place to start in times of trouble. Maybe that is what we need to pray today, "Have mercy on me, God. Have mercy on me." It is so great to have someone...

Tuesday... We just have trouble listening.

1 Corinthians 13:7 (NLT), "Love never gives up, never loses faith, is always hopeful, and endures through every circumstance." Tuesday... We just have trouble listening. Over in Jeremiah 25:4 (NLT) it says, "Again and again the LORD has sent you his servants, the prophets, but you have not listened or even paid attention." And Jeremiah went on to tell what was going to happen. There will be consequences if we do not listen to what God says through his Word. Now the Apostle Paul over in 1 Corinthians was having a problem with some professed Christ followers who were having trouble at listening. And we too can have problems at listening. We can think that being a Christ follower means we do a lot of finger pointing and we give up on people who don't do what we say. We can even do that in our families. But Paul writes in 1 Corinthians 13:7 (NLT), "Love never gives up, never loses faith, is always hopeful, and endures through every circumstance." In verse ...

Friday... It is so exciting but wait a minute.

Proverbs 19:2 (NLT), "Enthusiasm without knowledge is no good; haste makes mistakes." Friday... It is so exciting but wait a minute. This time of the year is so exciting. We get our paycheck from work and then we head to the store or Amazon and buy and buy and buy all those presents and then our check is gone Proverbs 19:2 (NLT) says, "Enthusiasm without knowledge is no good; haste makes mistakes." But buying gifts can be so much fun and seeing how happy they are when opening those presents makes us feel so good. But then verse 3 says, "People ruin their lives by their own foolishness and then they are angry at the Lord." Now for some that is their life. They get money and they spend it on their wants with no thought of what needs to be paid. An important lesson that we have learned is just because you have money in the bank doesn't mean you must spend it. But our enthusiasm takes over. But the problem is when it is gone and there is no money to pay th...