“Never once did we try to win you with flattery”
Manipulation is one of the most common of human sins.
We manipulate others to achieve outcomes by outright lies, shading the truth, flattery, subservience, brashness, fear, monetary influence, praise, pretense and so much more.
This is why Jesus said, “let your yes be yes and you no be no. Anything more than this is of the devil”. He meant that we must trust God. We must simply do our best to speak with pure motives and then let the chips fall where they may.
I try very hard to make the Gospel intelligible to others so that lack of understanding is not a barrier to others. But it is very easy to cross the line into trying to make the Gospel palatable to others. The Gospel should be shared with others lovingly, clearly, intelligently, personally, but not with anything that smacks of manipulation. The gospel can and will stand on it’s own and on it’s reality and vitality within you.
Can you just for a moment imagine how different life would be if everyone sought to follow Paul's example of "Our purpose is to please God, not people." So much mis-directed effort is spent trying to please people without considering the higher call!
ReplyDeleteYou know, in many ways it would seem that choosing to manipulate the truth, and trying to please people, instead of God, are one in the same. We know, in our heads, that God will provide for all our needs according to His power, AND He will also provide all of what is needed to perform our purpose in His will. So why do we spend so much time trying to make things work our way? Trying to convince others of things, using our flawed human logic? One of the things I like best about these daily scriptures/reflections is that it keeps us in the Word. AND the Word says that when it is used/spoken, it will not come back void. May God help us all to use His words instead of our own, so that we may spread the Gospel to a fallen world.
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