Wednesday... So what really bothers us?

There is a word that I found in Matthew 19. It seemed in verse 13 (NLT) that some parents came with their children to see Jesus. They wanted Jesus to lay his hands on them and pray. "But the disciples scolded the parents for bothering him." And there is the word, bothering.

Now this is what Jesus said in verse 14, "But Jesus said, 'Let the children come to me. Don't stop them! For the Kingdom of Heaven belongs to those who are like children.' And he placed his hands on their heads and blessed them before he left."

The disciples had not arrived yet in their patience, their understanding. They thought they were taking care of Jesus by scolding those parents to not bother him. Now we would stop and think that he may have been bothered by the disciples, by us in our times that we act like children. But if he had been bothered by them he wouldn't have taken the time to explain what was important just like His Spirit strives to do when it seems our actions would bother him.

People are important to Jesus. Jesus in love has to rebuke us sometimes and strive to help us in our immaturity but he also is very patient with us.

So how do we handle being bothered? Look at this. Proverbs 17:5 says, "Those who mock the poor insult their Maker; those who rejoice at the misfortunes of other will be punished."

Maybe we need to be bothered by our attitude and actions toward the poor, toward children.

Here is another one. Verse 9 says, "Love prospers when a fault is forgiven, but dwelling on it separates close friends." We can be so bothered at what someone else does and we love to dwell on it. Does the imperfections of those around us bother us. Then we are always bothered.

Verse 14, "Starting a quarrel is like opening a floodgate, so stop before a dispute breaks out."

Now our reactions toward others and our ignoring needs of those around us needs to bother us. If Jesus wasn't interested in those children and their parents, didn't have compassion for them, if he wasn't interested in his disciples impatience and immaturity then that would bother us.

There are actions that do bother us. People matter to God. He is bothered by our actions and our lack of love for him and others but he is not bothered by our reaching out to him and our need of him. That is why he came to this earth. He loves us and he wants us to have all that a relationship with God will give us.

People matter to God, children matter to God, the poor matter to God, the troubles and the difficulties that we are going through matter to God, the lost matter to God, and his followers matter to God. So what matters to God needs to matter to us. Yes, yes! #todaysbeginning

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Todays Beginning

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