Jumping The Gun

"...so that you may become blameless and pure, children of God without fault in a crooked and depraved generation, in which you shine like stars in the universe." ~ Philippians 2:15

When something bad arises, I like to assume what I am already going to do.

That could be dangerous.

See, when I have faced various problems where someone underhandedly hurts me, sometimes I think to myself, "This is what I am going to do to get back at them..." But I know I can't because I'm a Christian. Imagine me not saying that in a condescending way. I really do mean that I watch what I do as a Christian because what I do gives testimony to whom Christ is.

Sometimes I think our mistakes as Christians are so commonly done and widely known that people can see right through us. Some people have a good idea of what Jesus would do. Others might actually just be surprised to see what Jesus would really actually do. Needless to say we need to live like Christ, and therefore continually seek after him. Therefore if we ever questioned about what we do, we can say confidently that we did it for God's glory; to reflect the image of Christ (1 Corinthians 10:31; 2 Corinthians 3:18).

I speak today of my "jumping the gun" decision making process based off of this morning. I have many choices of what to do after waking up to find my work had called to switch me to another department. Make that the sixth department in one year and two months. It makes working there hard every time they do that. It's not easy to carry a joyful demeanor when you don't feel appreciated as a worker.

Still I hold onto this simple truth.

I never have gone to work thinking, "This is how I am going to get back at them for all they have done to me."

I never said to myself what co-workers of mine say, "They don't pay me enough to do that."

And I never once have tried to bash, mangle, or hate any manager that has treated me unfairly. I rather cry in my room and be found blameless and perhaps weak, than to be found guilty of deframing their name and being cruel in my attitude towards them.

As Christians we should be found blameless. We are carrying our savior's name as our image.

If we are seen hating another human being, being careless about our jobs, or doing anything else contrary to Scripture, we are scratching up the image of Christ we are given responsibility in holding.

Ephesians 1:13 says as believers we are marked with the seal of the holy spirit once we become believers in Christ. Later in chapter 4, verse 30, we are told not to grieve him. This means from the original language this text was written in, we can bring sorrow and sadness to the spirit God has given us. Can you imagine grieving the holy spirit? I feel like this puts our sinful ways at a level to where they don't offend God as much as they hurt him.

How humbling is that to know we can bring sorrow to the God's spirit? It actually makes me feel like I slapped the most faithful loving person in my life in the face. In fact, I think that is the equivalence of what I have done, spiritually speaking.

Here we are ready to say, "Lord, I'll do this for you," but really we are adding "...but I won't do that for you."

Jumping the gun decision making can get us into a lot of hurt and trouble in our lives. It can also hurt the image of the invisible God with in us. But most importantly, it can hurt him.

Today, let's not be hasty to make our decisions to what feels right or good. Sometimes it's our pride that gets in the way. Other times it's ignorance. Never be afraid to choose your gut reaction, but always try to align it with Scripture. Does it fit the image of the invisible God? Does it reflect his character at all?

If not, pray and rethink it through. If so, carry on what He would do. You'll shine like a star in this crooked dark world.