My friend, Dr. Phil (not the one you’re thinking of) told me the craziest story. This Dr. Phil teaches in a university. On the first day of class a student came early. All alone in the classroom with my friend, her new prof, she proceeded to cycle through the sins and shortcomings of the former professors she had taken this SAME class from, this being her third time through. But the reason for all the prior failures was, of course, the professors’ fault.
Is it smart to talk smack about professors to a prof? Even less brilliant--as she was confessing she was confused. She didn’t recognize that Dr Phil had taught her class the first time she took it (probably because she didn’t show up for class much). My friend didn’t let her get too lurid before stopping her by saying: “I am he.”
There is a different I AM who hears everything you say. How often do we forget this? We will list a long litany of our problems acting like it’s God’s fault. Do you know who is listening?
Do we REALLY know who is listening when we say those things or think those thoughts that are not pleasing to Him and are destructive to us? “There is nothing concealed that will not be disclosed, or hidden that will not be made known. What you have said in the dark will be heard in the daylight, and what you have whispered in the ear in the inner rooms will be proclaimed on the housetops” (Luke 12:3)
We discuss in detail the sordid problems life has doled us or people have dealt us, without ever a thought that God has a solution if I continue to seek His will for my life instead of my own, and continue to love Him: “And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose” (Romans 8:28).
Great things will happen to us--miracle healings or, “near misses” at work or along the way that could have been tragedies except for a second or a swerve. We may give Him thanks once or twice. Then we yawn and move on. Do you know who is listening for the perpetual praise due Him?
“Through Jesus…let us continually offer to God a sacrifice of praise—the fruit of lips that confess his name” (Hebrews 13:15).
“But SO many bad things do happen to me,” you argue. That's why the Bible calls it a "sacrifice of praise," only possible through Jesus.
