I read this this morning on the LPM blog and have to agree. It seems to be everywhere. I can't say it any better than she did. So I am just totally copying it for you to read.
From Beth Moore: One thing " I want to share with you is pounding in my heart. I don't have time to write it with my deadline coming up (by the way, your prayers are working! keep them up!) but it's going to consume me if I don't. I'm just going to take a very general, short stab at it and hope to feel the relief of getting it out there. My prompting for this word is not coming from the blog community. It's coming from requests that have swamped our ministry office recently and that we have gladly and compassionately received. The common denominator has been the same: women just totally out of control and doing some really foolish things. I've been one of them so I recognize some of the symptoms. And the cries for help. And the misguided desires for the kind of empathy that pats them on the head and says, "Who could blame you? Go right ahead." Because I love you so much, I want to share what the Holy Spirit is impressing on me in case it resonates. Listen here, Girls. If this shoe doesn't fit, don't wear it! Shake it off and know that it's not for you. But, if it does, be courageous and respond in obedience to God. Let me remind you before I dive into this that God pulled me from the deepest possible pit of sin and no one has been more tightly clutched by strongholds than me. Not one bit of this comes to you from a proud or condemning heart. It comes strictly from love and concern and as one who could have used this word along the way. So here it goes.
Sometimes we just need to STOP IT. Just plain stop it. We don't need to keep praying over it. We don't need to keep deliberating it. We don't need one last shot at it. We don't need five more years of counseling over it. We flat need to stop it. Like, for instance,
*If we're married and we're flirting with somebody at work (calling it harmless), we need to stop it.
*And, Lord have mercy, if any of us are having affairs, we need to stop it NOW. With every second that goes by, the consequences are mounting. Please do not let the enemy trick you into thinking you're getting away with it. You're not. Don't rationalize it. Don't tell me what a jerk your husband is and how you're finally in love for the first time. Get some fear of God and stop it.
*If we're being a brat about something, we need to stop it.
*If we're still punishing somebody for what they did to us, we need to stop it. Enough is enough. Let God deal with them.
*If we're trying to do God's job with somebody, we need to stop it.
No Scripture says it more succinctly and exactly than Isaiah 1:16b: "Stop doing wrong." Hear the voice of God say, "I've warned you and warned you and warned you. STOP IT."
I say this as a woman to whom sometimes a brief, "STOP IT NOW!" works better than anything. I love you so much and I want all of us to live in the full blessing of God that only obedience can invite. His will is for us, Siestas. Go with God on this or things are going to get really ugly. Take the warning and stop."
Ok Ladies, we have been warned: What do we need to stop today? What are we doing wrong that we know God is saying, "Stop IT!" You are only hurting you (and many others, our sin doesn't just affect us!).
2 comments:
I need to stop arguing with my 16 year old. There has been some strain between us and it has been getting worse and I felt God saying just that to me, "STOP IT!, no other excuses", just two weeks ago. It had been pressing on me some here and there and I would brush it aside, but the pressing got heavier, and then I tried to justify it, and then finally I DID hear that..."STOP IT!". And, boy, it did come with the fear of God!!!
Well, so I did stop it, but "stop arguing" doesn't change the fact that there are still issues that can't be ignored, which are causing the arguments to begin with. But, I shut my mouth for quite a few days and I prayed about that, for discernment in handling those issues. So, now, this past week God has been showing me more godly things to say & how to respond to her, in order to replace the hot disagreements we keep having, with His Spirit and more godly communication and results. Sigh...I am so dependent on His strength and leading! I guess that's ok though as long as I don't forget it.
My prayer is anyone who reads this post and is convicted by God in any area will indeed do a complete about face, and pray to God for the strength and wisdom to either, follow the way of escape they are given by God, or know what it is God desires them to do to as a resolution to the problem instead.
I like this post though, sometimes it just needs to be said (or in my case, heard!).
This is good.
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