BEWARE, IT'S A TRAP!

So yesterday I was reading in Matt. and several things hit me... but for now let me just focus on this one (or two).
Matt. 16:23 -
Jesus turned and said to Peter, “Get behind me, Satan! You are a stumbling block to me; you do not have in mind the things of God, but the things of men.”

(I encourage you to please read this passage in context... it will make much more sense)...
Do you ever have those moments when friends or family are trying to tell you about something that has happened to them... and you say what you think they want to hear but not always the truth... Or flip that around and you are the one being pumped up so to speak by someone when your chips have fallen... Beware! Sometimes it is what you need to hear ... because it is truth, but sometimes is it just flattery or derailment from the course you need to take (I hope I am making sense here).

We can be and others can be to us, a dangerous trap... when we do not speak truth (in love). It is not easy to always hear the things others want to share with us or to accept the truth for what it is, when it is not pleasant. But sometimes (actually more than sometimes) life is just not pleasant. We have to look at our situations and others not from a human point of view, but from God's perspective. When we don't we must beware because it is a trap! The enemy would love to see us get off course and sink into pity, selfishness, bitterness, on and on... to where we have such a worldly view and miss the opportunity God has given us in that moment... For that is when with a God perspective, we truly live, we have great victory in Christ and bring glory to the Father.

Another thing that I have been thinking about is in v. 21 where it says that from that time on (after the feeding of the 5,000+ & the 4,000+ and explaining about watching out for the yeast of the Pharisees - false teaching)... it says in the NLT - Jesus began to tell his disciples plainly that he had to go to Jerusalem, and he told them what would happen to him there.... (Note emphasis mine).... I started thinking about that... that Jesus had told them not in parables or analogies but plainly what was going to happen to him... So in the back of their minds from the time the went to Jerusalem they knew what was coming...When Jesus was worshiped as the entered in... as they had the last supper, in the garden when Jesus asked them to keep watch with him and pray, when he was betrayed and carried off... on and on... Maybe it was as mentioned above too unpleasant to imagine so they fell into the trap of unbelief, maybe it was shock, I cannot even begin to say that I know what was going through their minds... but I find it very interesting.

Interesting because when God tells us something - it happens! Yet we don't always live as if we really believe that.... Believe all the prophets foretold, all that Christ has said... we don't even live every moment (as we have been empowered to do by Christ) for the glory of the Father... Our lives would look so different if we would really believe and were living out the Word!

Maybe in our minds we say yes I believe but does our actions, which flow out from our heart mesh with that? Do you live as if Christ could return at any moment? Do you study the prophecies that tells us what the signs are for his return and look for them... and live for that moment!? I know I do not always do this... How I wish I could get my act together - Amen! That I would die to self and live for Christ, that I would live with an eternal perspective and care more about the lost... That I would be like minded with Christ in my heart and mind and actions... That I would be prepared for the day that we all have to give account... The DAY is coming, Christ will return... Oh that we may live as if we truly believe it and all that He has promised us!!! We have a great inheritance awaiting us... but for others - well, that is what we should be praying and living lives that witness, share and minister to the lost.

Lord give us willing and obedient spirits, that are fully devoted to you and your will & to loving others more than ourselves. Amen.