Daily Bible Reading - 2 Chronicles 18-19, Daniel 1, John 19
...that I will speak
Last night I read The Emperor's New Clothes to my girls. In the story the Emperor loved clothes so much that it distracted him from doing his job as king. Some thieves come along and convinced the King to buy and wear the new clothes they made for him, clothes that only intelligent people could see. They convinced the King that the clothes were gorgeous and though the King himself could not see the clothes he was wearing he pretended to see them right along with everyone around him. None of the King's ministers told him that he was not wearing any clothes at all for fear of being thought a fool. So everyone went on pretending to see the clothes. As the King lead a procession down the main street a young boy saw that he had no clothes on and shouted with confidence. Everyone realized the truth, as well as the King. This boy was promoted to be the King's advisor to warn the King when he was about to do something foolish. The King became known as the wisest of emperors because of the boy who was not afraid to speak the truth.
As I read 2 Chronicles 18 today I was reminded of this story. Here we see Ahab the king of Israel surrounded by prophets that are telling him exactly what he wished to hear. 2 Chronicles 18:7 says, "And the king of Israel said to Jehoshaphat, There is yet one man by whom we may inquire of the Lord, Micaiah the son of Imlah; but I hate him, for he never prophesies good concerning me, but always evil". Micaiah was told in 2 Chronicles 18:12 "...Behold, the words of the prophets with one accord are favorable to the king. Let your word be like the word of one of them, and speak favorably. But Micaiah said, As the Lord lives, what my God says, that I will speak". Rather then saying what everyone else said due to fear of being hated Micaiah chose to speak the truth, to speak only that which God said. Like the boy in The Emperor's New Clothes Micaiah was known for telling it like it is.
What words do you speak? Are they words that please people and tell them what they want to hear or are they the Words of God that lead people to eternal life? Those who stand up and speak what is true are remembered and respected. Notice that we do not know the names of the prophets telling the King what he wanted to hear yet Micaiah's name is written here in the Word of God to be read by thousands upon thousands of people throughout time.
The quote by Fields, W. C. "any dead fish can float down stream, but it takes a live one to swim upstream" comes to my mind. To truly live this life Christ has died to give us it requires going against the grain, speaking what is true rather then what is accepted, telling people what they need to hear rather then what they want to hear.
As for me, what my God says that I will speak. How about you?
Tomorrow's Bible Reading - 2 Chronicles 20, Daniel 2, John 20
Dream Big,
Katie
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Friday, October 23, 2009
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3 comments:
I have found that my struggle lies not in telling people what they want to hear, but in telling them what they need to hear in the right way. Yes, through love of course, but sometimes it is better to share what they need to hear through a personal struggle or through a story of someone else. Oh, and sometimes I do have to remind myself to share it in love.
I forgot about that story! Such a great example of how we can often walk around the issue everyone sees but no one will speak up about.
With the scripture, it is interesting that the king knew the prophet never prophesied anything good and therefore didn't want him around. It is a good reminder that we shouldn't always be around people that tell us what we want to hear but those that tell us what we need to hear...I am sure this blog will tie right into Sunday's message!
Its interesting to think about this because its not always the fear of being hated that stops us, but also knowing that you are not going to be heard. You can see in the passage that they still ask Micaiah what the Lord is saying, but they don't listen to him and they still do whatever the other prophets said. But before he is taken away he says "If you return in peace, the LORD has not spoken by me." which means "go and do whatever you want, I just said what I had to say cause I God told me to, you'll find out if its true or not".
Its not our job to make people do what God is telling us to tell them, its not our job to force God into people, our job is to do what God asks us to do and speak up when He asks us to even if that means going against the current.
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