in our lives, locally, nationally, globally? First, to expose our prideful, judgmental self-righteousness, as we react to them, openly or secretly. But also, to disillusion us about the trustworthiness of our human-wisdom, so we become less-and-less confident we know what's best in any situation, and more-and-more confident Jesus KNOWS exactly what He's doing, and is worthy of our trust/dependency.
In Heaven, there will be no irritating people, because everyone will be very humble. But for now, He's created irritating people so we have examples of pride/evil. How could we appreciate the contrast of a humble, dependent, loving Jesus, otherwise? And our irritation about the pride, narrow-mindedness, in others, indicates what proud people WE are. My wife, Janet, says, "You spot it, you got it."
We typically don't see SovereignJesus behind everyone and everything, including the people who irritate us the most. My human-wisdom loves me being irritated with someone, or some group -- feeling superior to them, instead of being irritated with Jesus. When we really believe Jesus is totally sovereign, we THANK Him for everything just as it is, and everyone just as we are, and are curious/expectant to see what He does NEXT, in us, others, circumstances. Ahhh. This is not OUR story, but His story. Not OUR problem to work out, but His problem to work out.
I don't need to know what's best/worst, because Jesus KNOWS, and I can ASK Him, rather than ASSUMing or willfully DOing. Ahhh, the other-worldly peace flowing from Jesus-dependency is AMAZING.
-- Dave McCarty, GospelFriendships, who only experiences this amazing peace, when freshly convicted by the Spirit, of his human-wisdom-dependency, and it doesn't last long
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