Don't Write a Bad Check!

Thursday's Devotion (3-10-06)

"For by thy words thou shalt be justified, and by thy words thou shalt be condemned." Matthew 12:37 (KJV)

I wasn't sure exactly what scripture to use for today's message, so I hope that I did a good job in choosing. Some of you have high thoughts of yourself, and you have persuaded others to have these same thoughts of you. You receive a lot of praise for, "your work for the Lord," or "for the world." You teach of good things, and you make it known that you abide by what you teach, but you don't. You're all talk. Of course, I'm not talking about everyone... Just some of you. You have people praising you like you're some kind of god, or some kind of prophet sent by God Himself. They believe that you are the most holy, or at least that's what you want them to believe. This isn't a work for the Lord or for the sake of making the world a better place, this is a work for yourself! This is for your own praise, thus making it all in vain. The true heroes don't think about themselves, the true heroes think of others first. They don't think about how they can profit off their actions.

I'm going to repeat an old phrase that my dad used. I'm going to say it in a more 'delicate' manner than he said it. So, I have to change a word in the sentence to something more appropriate. Here it is, "Your mouth wrote a check that your rear can't cash." This is what many of us have done. This is why I try to make it known that I am far from perfect. This way if you run into me on the streets you will not be too disappointed when you see that like you, I'm only a human being. Some of you have exalted yourself so high that you can't possibly live up to the hype. And guess what? God requires that your checks be good, and that they don't bounce when you try to cash them. In other words if you have people believing that you are a prophet, or just a righteous man... You better be able to live up to it! Man receives justification or condemnation by his own words. Let me tell you about my hero as a child. When I was young my hero was Hulk Hogan. Many children felt the same way. He was courageous on television. He had no fear, and he loved his fans. When I went to a wrestling event many years later, we got to go backstage. We met some of the wrestlers, Hulk Hogan was there... Surrounded by security guards, and he didn't even acknowledge us. We heard the words of his security guards, "Move along." In other words the child inside of me was let down by someone who couldn't live up to the hype. When you lie about who you really are, someone always pays for it. Whether it be a young child, or an adult, someone pays for it. BUT in the end if you lie about who you really are, it will be YOU who pays for it. In the end the person that you let down gets over it, but you are eternally let down by yourself. I just hope and pray that I don't mislead people into thinking that I'm something that I'm not. I hope that I don't let others down, and I hope that more importantly I don't let God down. I truly believe that whatever you tell others you are and make them believe that you are, God requires you to be that thing! If the check is bad, don't write it!

Prayer: Dear Heavenly Father, thank you for this message, and for all things. Please forgive us of all our sins, and we forgive all those who've wronged us. Help us to be true to our word, don't let us deceive anyone. Let us be shining lights and examples for you. In Jesus name. A-men!

God bless!

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