Are we listening to
the ones who say the truth or the ones who lie to have their ways done?
That would be hard to
say if you do not know the source of their voice, but if you know is from a
good one, you’ll trust. And, what if we wouldn’t know it is good? That’s easy.
The Bible says: You will know them by their fruits. Grapes are not gathered from thorn
bushes, nor figs from thistles, are they? (Matthew 7.16) So, we gather that it’s impossible that
anything bad can come from the One who delivered us from eternal death, who
wants everyone to live and even forgave the ones who killed Him: “Father,
forgive them, for they do not know what they are doing.” (Luke 23.34a) But, what if our desires and selfish needs
make us obey the wrong voices? I guess
we would have to experiment if there’s a way out. I’ll tell you what happened
to someone:
A young lad was irritated about not being able
to get whatever he wanted out of life so he left home cursing at everything and
everyone around, his friends and especially his mother with whom he had a nasty
argument. He sat under a tree on the way looking up angrily. As he mouthed
silently, tears came to his eyes and started to see things. A coat hung on a
gold hanger descended from the sky as a voice was heard: this coat is named I WISH; whoever wears it could have anything desired
but the coat can never touch the floor for when it does everything will
disappear. So he got up quickly and grabbed it before it hit the floor,
took it out of the hanger which he hung on the tree and wore it. Frowning, he
wished for a rare candy which appeared in his hand. He opened his eyes so big,
they hurt. He ate the candy and it was awesome. He assumed then that coat was
his long desired life treasure and he would take care that it would never reach
the floor: “I won’t ever take it off,” he decided. So he started on his way to
great and new places where he could live the life he had desired for himself.
He did not want anything of his past life which was “miserable.” He then wished
for everything new and stylish and everyone looked up and envy him with much
glitter. But since he could not take the coat off, he could not bathe and
started to stink, so people stopped getting close by. He could not even get
anyone to serve him for money or whatever precious thing he could offer. He had
tried wishing for people to help him or just to talk, but they never appeared,
just things. He started feeling an awful itch and when he opened the coat saw
that his body was covered of worms eating up his nasty flesh so he was
infuriated and threw the coat. Everything disappeared, and he found himself
back under the tree. Relieved he went back home and kissed his mother who
stunned.
This story has many Lessons:
~No treasure “found”
can be better than the life God designed for you. Learn to live it well. Ask
Him to show you.
~There’s no miserable
life a good friend cannot help you get through. Find one.
~Do not mistake “great
findings” with Divine Will. The Devil is
a great Imitator.
~Do not envy anything
that glitters. It might have worms inside.
~Relieved means going back to the routine.
With God at our side we can motivate it.
When we make the
decision of listening to God we learn a lot of things that make our lives worth
living. We make good friends that in time of need listen to us, and go out of their way to help; we learn to
forgive, to love God and one another, and in return He cares for us and fills
us with an inexplicable peace and joy, all His promises become true on us
(read Psalm 91); we grow dauntless and feel unbeatable, and He fills us with
the Holy Spirit who intercedes for us if we remain faithful nourishing in His
Word and talking to Him, at all moments. And that we do, not because we have
to, but because we want to be closer to Him and enjoy His favor. When we listen to Him, no one can lie to us
because he will be discovered and fail. John, the apostle said it:
We know that no one who is born
of God sins; but He who was born of God keeps him, and the evil one does not
touch him. We know that we are of God, and that the whole world lies in the
power of the evil one. And we know that
the Son of God has come and has given us understanding so that we may know Him
who is true; and we are in Him who is true, in His Son Jesus Christ. This is
the True God and eternal life. (I John 5.18-20)
