“AN EVIL TIME!”

 This was shared in April last year.  As I read over it again, I was once again convicted that “there, but by the grace of GOD, go I”!  

Amos 5:12-15                                          (ESV)

“12 For I know how many are your transgressions and how great are your sins- you who afflict the righteous, who take a bribe, and turn aside the needy in the gate. 

13 Therefore HE WHO IS PRUDENT will KEEP SILENT in such a time, for it is “AN EVIL TIME”. 

14 SEEK GOOD, and NOT EVIL, THAT YOU MAY LIVE; and so the LORD, the GOD of hosts, will be with you, as you have said. 

15 HATE EVIL, and LOVE GOOD, and establish justice in the gate; it may be that the LORD, the GOD of hosts, will be gracious to the remnant of Joseph.”

It can be hard to KEEP SILENT when you observe EVIL being evidenced by the actions of others.  “Spiritual Immaturity” is something that I have displayed over the course of my life, and admitting it is certainly not the most glamorous thing I have experienced.  But Spiritual Immaturity is rampant in “the church” today.  There are those who have been Believers for a number of years, yet they don’t act like they have been through the wilderness for more than a day!  It makes you appreciate the forty years that the Israelites wondered escaping Egypt???

GOD is telling me in the passage above that HE KNOWS me, “how many are your transgressions and how great are your sins”, yet HE wants to BLESS me and use me for HIS Glory.  Why would GOD use a sinner like me when others appear more worthy?  GOD typically uses the least (Deuteronomy 7:7) for HIS Glory, and I am qualified to be the least!!  Although we live in “AN EVIL TIME” we may need to KEEP SILENT and let GOD work in other people’s lives without our interference.  HE doesn’t require us to accomplish HIS Plan, HE uses us when HE chooses, not when we choose!  

Seeing others who still have growing to do does not indicate that they are beyond GOD’s ability to modify their behavior.  HE has a track record of using the LEAST to accomplish HIS Plan.  They might be in the Spiritual oven having their bread baked for HIM?  

1 Corinthians 7:17 states “Only let each person lead the life that the LORD has assigned to him, and to which GOD has called him. This is my rule in all the churches”.  Living in such “AN EVIL TIME” will reveal a lot about others, but chiefly it will reveal exactly where we are in our own Spiritual Maturity.  It is one thing to observe the actions of others, but when WE try changing their actions instead of praying that GOD change them, we risk becoming Pharisaical.  

FATHER, cause me to get the BEAM out of my own eye before trying to help get the splinter out of my brothers eye!!!