All is well that ends well!

Anyway, here are four things I learnt from my not-so-little episode (which I shared yesterday) especially after God clearly told me to shut my little trashy mouth because He is God. And I am just Alheri.

God > Alheri. Forever has been. Is. Forever will be.

Grace is NEVER earned– God already loves us to infinity- nothing can make Him love us more or less than He already does. Infinity no upper or lower boundaries, it is the be all and end of all. Similarly, we cannot earn the grace of God by what we do (or do not do). When we pray for people, or do good things for them, we are not to rely on them for appreciation. We cannot wait upon people for our motivation.

We do things because God says we should, and not to win the admiration or praise of others. We cannot earn the respect of others by what we do for them. Promotion comes not from the east of the west, but from the Lord. It’s not that easy, I’m the biggest culprit. But our kindness should come from our desire to please the Lord and not from our need for accolades from humans.

God wants us to be honest with Him- We are fallible. We try and try, but it’s never enough. How do you pray when you are upset or frustrated? How do you react when people upset you? How does that affect your relationship with God? When we are not at peace with God, we should tell Him exactly how we feel. I’m not saying that we should lose our respect for God- He is God, He is a consuming fire, and He is the maker of the entire universe.

But beyond that, He wants a relationship with us. He wants us to be honest, open, and vulnerable with Him. The strongest relationships are honest and genuine. We only get as much as we give. You want peace? Tell your grievances to God, He will take them away and give you peace. We cannot lie to God, He knows way more than we do. The best thing we can do is to be honest and open with Him.

Do not fall prey to spiritual pride– I am the biggest culprit here, and I admit that I have absolutely no reason whatsoever. I sometimes feel like I do a lot for God, therefore He owes me. I blog, and so I am better than others. I serve in bla bla bla ministry at church so I deserve His love. But God says no. We do not deserve anything because of anything we have or haven’t done. Yes, God does love righteousness, holiness, obedience, and a pure and clean heart.

But He also abhors pride. He hates it when we feel better than other people because of our actions. He hates it when we begin to feel entitled. He wants us to approach Him as God. He does not owe us because we do not own Him. He is God. We do our best and leave the rest to Him. Good news is that He is kind, compassionate, and merciful. Slow to anger, and abounding in mercy!

You are not above persecution- Even if someone insults us, embarrasses us, or castigates us, we should be peacemakers. We are not undeserving of meanness, even Jesus suffered prejudice, betrayal, and was spat at. Very often, we feel like no one has the right to be rude to us, because we are not rude to people. We feel like we should always be treated fairly because we are fair to others. That is a big fat lie. We do not always get what we think we deserve. And we feel that way when we judge the things we “deserve” based on the standard of this world.

In fact, we can be smack in the middle of God and still be insulted, hated, or despised. Steven was stoned to death because of his faith. Joseph was sent to prison, the apostle Paul suffered three ship wrecks. Daniel was sent to the lion’s den, and David was pursued endlessly by Saul. In bad times, turn your anger upwards. Do not take is personal, it’s not about you. Turn your pain and frustration towards God. We may be in the right, but Jesus says we should turn the other cheek. This, as always, only according to the will of God.

That’s all for today. I do hope you are all better people than I am. Please tell me your struggle is much easier than mine.

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Image from here.