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Spiritual Intelligence: Foolish Pride

Blessed is he whose transgression is forgiven, whose sin is covered. Blessed is the man to whom the Lord does not impute iniquity, and in whose spirit there is no deceit. When I kept silent, my bones grew old through my groaning all the day long. For day and night Your hand was heavy upon me; my vitality was turned into the drought of summer. Selah

I acknowledged my sin to You, and my iniquity I have not hidden. I said, “I will confess my transgressions to the Lord,” and You forgave the iniquity of my sin. Selah

Good morning friends. In these verses from the psalms, the writer expresses gratitude towards God for forgiveness, and the role we might adopt in order to experience it’s blessings.

An acknowledgement of our shortcomings and inability to measure up to God’s standards is always the starting point. For genuine repentance can only take place when our hearts are opened, and the scales of deceit falls off our eyes. In the process our true state is revealed, and our quest for answers begin. We suddenly realise that we are lost in a lost world, so we start seeking for direction from extraterrestrial forces. Then like one trapped deep underground in a cave, we hear the faint voices of the rescue team, we shout back with all that is left within us, the ropes are dropped, we reach for it; desperate to get out of cold and darkness, into the marvellous lights and warmth of salvation!

In the words of the psalmist:

When I kept silent, my bones grew old through my groaning all the day long.

So dear friends, we all need help, but allow me to stress at this juncture that these are issues of life, and as such it is supremely important that we are looking in the right direction for help. In the words of Jesus:

Enter by the narrow gate; for wide is the gate and broad is the way that leads to destruction, and there are many who go in by it. Because narrow is the gate and difficult is the way which leads to life, and there are few who find it.

The wide gate epitomises short term fixes. Foolish pride…. Instead of reaching out to The Hand of love from a loving father, we turn to cheap substitutes. Like drugs, and the buzz fades away in passing time. Like events and seasons, and they quickly change. Like money, unable to afford those intangible realms; which sadly are the very essence of life.

Please allow me to close this morning’s thought with some excerpts from another psalm, which sheds some light on where we ought to be looking:

I will lift up my eyes to the hills— from whence comes my help? My help comes from the Lord,
Who made heaven and earth.

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ISBN 13 (Paperback): 9781496975379
ISBN 13 (Hardbound): 9781496975386

~ Sabali

Categories
#spiritualintelligence

Spiritual Intelligence: Breaking The Silence

These things you have done, and I kept silent; you thought that I was altogether like you; but I will rebuke you, and set them in order before your eyes. “Now consider this, you who forget God, lest I tear you in pieces, and there be none to deliver: whoever offers praise glorifies Me; and to him who orders his conduct aright I will show the salvation of God

Good morning friends. Oftentimes the patience of God is grossly misunderstood by most of us; as a result, we treat his silence or inaction as consent. We assume God understands our “unique” situation, and because we are so special, He has bent the rules somewhat to accommodate us. This is an error, and the consequences can be devastating. On the contrary, we need to step up to His standards by coming to the realisation that His patience towards humanity is a token of His love. He gives us time in the hope that we wake up from our slumber, align our lives to His purpose, take our stand and play our part in the expansion of His Kingdom.

In Paul’s letter to friends in Rome, he tries to contend with this mindset with this rhetorical question:

Or do you despise the riches of His goodness, forbearance, and longsuffering, not knowing that the goodness of God leads you to repentance?

So dear friends, silence does not always mean consent. In fact, every now and then He breaks the silence with a note of caution, like the one you are reading right now. And He does it in the hope that we change our ways, receive forgiveness, and adopt a healthier lifestyle. In the hope that we stop living selfishly, and start living selflessly. For ultimately, even if we escape death, there is still a day of reckoning on the horizon… That day my friends is the point of no return.

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~ Sabali

*Help make my new book (Echoes of Mercy, Whispers of Love) a success by supporting my fundraising campaign using this link: https://www.indiegogo.com/projects/echoes-of-mercy-whispers-of-love

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Much love,
Clem