There is nothing wrong with gaining earthly knowl-
edge until it becomes more important and trustwor-
thy than God’s will. In this life, arrogance and selfish-
ness is the result of our fallen and depraved nature.
The carnal mind controls our conscience until it is
renewed through the power of the Holy Spirit. God
commands that we not be conformed to the world,
but to be transformed. This happens when our origi-
nal spirit is changed into a new spirit which allows us
to see everything the way God sees it. This is called
being born again and is a gift of salvation from the
one who loves us and wants to give us eternal life.
Every Christian will face spiritual warfare and we
must become determined to never compromise
God’s truth. We can share our convictions but since
each person has free will, only God can change a
heart. Instead of trying to tell everyone else how to
live, maybe we should spend more time examining
our hearts. We learn many things throughout our
lives, but not everything we believe is true. Most of
our information comes from what others have told us,
and the rest from what we’ve learned through the fail-
ures and triumphs of personal experiences. The more
I research, the more I discover the world is filled with
deception and things are not always what they seem.
I just want to make sure that my views are not distort-
ed. Some people do not care about right and wrong
as long as they have what they need to survive. Ask-
ing God for discernment also applies to family and
friends and how we have formed destructive thoughts
about them. It makes the situation even worse when
we gossip and share our stories with others.
We have all done things good and bad that people
will associate with our character. Unfortunately, many
times we have also been guilty of wrongly misjudging
people. Maybe we observed someone in a weak mo-
ment or heard a story about them that was skewed
which caused us to form our opinions in error. Yes,
we indeed need to watch how we act and what we
say, as we remember not to form our views about an
individual based on a few glimpses of their actions.
Jesus calls for us to forgive everyone and have more
understanding and compassion because we all have
our times of weakness and make a lot of mistakes.
How many times have we acted ugly and given some-
one a bad first impression of us? The consequences
we all must be accountable for is that even when we
ask God to help us forgive, it is nearly impossible to
forget.
We are quick to make our case when someone
offends us and wanting revenge is common. Many
are more than willing to discard a re-
lationship and in some cases even if
it’s nothing more than a rumor. We
seldom consider that as we are burn-
ing bridges, others are doing the
same to us. The wounded soul must
be repaired like a fractured bone. We
cannot proceed in our inner healing
without spiritual realignment and as
God heals us we must also forgive
ourselves. Everyone is born needing
to be rescued from sin and the blood
of Jesus is the only ransom. Until we
receive God’s love and forgiveness,
we are unable to know the true mean-
ing and purpose of life. God is truth
and the only way for us to know God’s
truth is to know Him. I have seen many
who have everything life can offer and
yet are miserable because they did
not have the presence of Jesus dwell-
ing within their heart and mind.
As adults, we are convinced we
can handle our negative emotions.
We learn to hide the pain as we try
to heal ourselves and manage our
hatred for all the bad things we have
experienced. The agony of enduring
the daily grind can twist in knots and
is not a place of joy or contentment.
It’s heartbreaking to know that many
individuals live as a prisoner because
they refuse to forgive. Bitterness can
take root within the heart and cause
us to be incarcerated with misery and
depression. However, there is good news when we
accept the love of Jesus as the key to genuine peace
and happiness. We are reminded in John 8:31-32,
where Jesus said, “If you abide in my word, you are
truly my disciples, and you will know the truth, and
the truth will set you free.”
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istries.com
