My pastor’s sermon yesterday was
awesome and it is the inspiration for this blog. So he mentioned the “crippled believer”
whom he likened to the crippled butterfly in that story of the butterfly that
was assisted by the onlooker who feeling the pain of the butterfly that was struggling
to get out of its cocoon and having little understanding of the situation
himself, broke the cocoon to make it easier for the butterfly not realizing
that God in His wisdom had worked things out such that in that process, the
butterfly is strengthened to fly and fulfill its destiny. Unfortunately, that
quick relief would cripple the butterfly making it impossible for it to fulfill
its destiny which is the fate of many believers today.
Unwittingly, a lot of us
believers work for the devil by responding to a situation in another life, like
the onlooker in the butterfly story; also with very little understanding of the
situation since you don’t care enough to understand the situation. Sadly, the
fact that you did not know your assistance will ultimately cripple the believer,
does not change the consequence. Maybe when we start to look beyond ourselves
to the crippling effect of our fleshly responses to situations in the lives of
others, we will see the compelling need to turn to the Holy Ghost, who is our
guide, for an appropriate response at such times. Trust me, His response is swift
but if the voice of your flesh is too strong, you may not hear Him.
Jesus was full of compassion, he
had emotions and could be emotional, like when He wept for Lazarus, but He
never responded to a situation emotionally. He always did the will of His father.
We often delude ourselves arguing that being compassionate is being emotional which
is not correct. Even my dictionary tells me they are different. It says to be “compassionate”
is to be touched by the pain/difficulties of another, to empathize and desire
to do something about the difficulty. Whilst, to be emotional, is to be excessively
affected by emotion rather than reason or an insincere and effusive
demonstration of sentimental friendship and an involuntary physiological
response to a situation, based on or tied to physical state and sensory data
which in bible parlance is flesh.
It is good to be compassionate
but our response must be divinely guided or carefully thought through at the
very least. Even smart unbelievers would listen to the voice of reason so that
though they may not be led by God, they often provide reasonable responses even
garnering help from others where they think they are unable to individually
provide all the necessary help not caring who gets the glory. Emotional people,
believers or unbelievers, will respond according to their feeling not thinking of
the ultimate impact. Of course they don’t reason so they do not adequately
assess the situation before they swing into emotional activity assuaging their
emotion and/or conscience.
Thank God Jesus was not emotional
in His decision making otherwise we may not be saved. Despite the strength of
the emotion that overwhelmed Him as He thought on the pain of the cross, He yielded
to the will of the father. Emotional people do not go the long haul. Going wherever
their emotions go, they must leave whenever they feel hurt. Life is all about
them and how they feel. Often very selfish, they smolder you with what they
insist love is, which it isn’t, unwittingly crippling you making it impossible
for you to fulfill your destiny. They struggle
with divine counsel and don’t listen to the voice of reason because they are
overwhelmed by emotions and every other person is wicked. We all have emotions
but we must refrain from letting them determine our responses. The price we pay
for that is too much.
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