Pointing a Finger

Grumbling and complaining are a pet peeve of mine. But just as Paul wrote in Romans 7, " I do not understand what I do. For what I want to do, I do not do, but what I hate, I do."

Complaining and grumbling make my stomach turn. It makes me sick to hear it all the time and makes my day go from up to down. But, it was pointed out to me here recently that I do not like complaining and grumbling from others, but I complain and grumble about others complaining and grumbling. In my head, I was thinking to the person, get out of here with your perfectly good logic, that, quite frankly, I don't want to hear right now (I would insert an eye roll emoji right here, if I could).

The person (who was my darling husband) was right, though. We can't talk about others doing something when we can't even control ourselves

in that area. It is ironic how that works, though. Here I am pointing a finger, and it comes right back to me. We are all working out our salvation. Yes, upon accepting Christ, we are members of his family. But our flesh is still accustomed to the habits we previously had. It is our responsibility to work these things out day by day, with the help of the Holy Spirit.

It can be very frustrating when we have worked certain habits out of our lives, though. Then we see someone else trying to muddle through the season we just walked through, we want to step in and tell them step by step how to correct it. We have to be cautious in how we approach them to help. Being hasty, without prayer and the leading of the Holy Spirit, can lead to harm for both parties. To point at others can put us in the seat of the judge, and we don't want that seat. The judge's seat holds a lot of responsibility.. The only perfect one to walk this earth was Jesus. To sit in the seat, we would have to be perfect. Meaning we would have to succeed in perfecting every habit in our lives and continue to succeed. That seems possible with the help of the Spirit, but I don't want to have to keep every single person in line. I'm so thankful for the Trinity that works on our behalf, because life can already be stressful enough, keeping myself in line!

We are all a team. As a member of the family of Christ, we all have the same leader. The same helper. The same father. Everything streams through them. Our prayers, hearts' desires, true motives, and actions. Our job is to work out our salvation daily. To allow the Spirit to lead us to speak into others' lives. When we are led daily, we are therefore prepared as the word says. Be prepared in season and out of season.