OK, another off the wall one! When I was praying for individuals and in general this thought came strongly to mind, “Oh Lord, don’t let them cut off their nose to spite their face.” When I switched on the T.V., guess what? That phrase was said within the first couple of minutes…

Coincidence? Godincidence? Don’t be so determined to make a point, as it were, that you harm yourself in the process. You may even miss out on the good things God has for you, refuse something you have long wanted that He is offering you…all just to make your point, because you feel it so strongly and  are convinced that others must be made to see the rightness and justice of your point as well.  It is very easy for hurt people to refuse healing, they very thing they want, need or would do them good. Self harm is not only physical in its expression, it can come out in the form of cutting off our nose to etc. etc..

If you are unfamiliar with the phrase  because you are not from my culture, here is an explanation from Wikipedia – so it must be true!!

“Cutting off the nose to spite the face” is an expression used to describe a needlessly self-destructive over-reaction to a problem: “Don’t cut off your nose to spite your face” is a warning against acting out of pique…”

Oh it is sad that sometimes the greatest enemy to our happiness, well-being and contentment is our own self. I had a dream in prayer  not long ago. This time it was for an individual. I saw this person playing a set of jingly bells, as though they were a musical instrument. The important thing was that they had to listen for the low beat of the base drum and keep in step with that. They could not set the beat, much as though they might have wished to. They had to listen for a stronger, steadier, louder beat that they could only choose to follow or not be part of the tune that was happening. They could not however make the beat of the drum accommodate itself to them no matter how fervently they shook the bells in their hand! If that was what they wanted, well, what would be the result? They would be found alone angrily shaking the bells that “no one else wanted or would listen to!” Not true of course, but true to them…

Don’t miss out on playing the tune because you want to control others in the orchestra to play to your jingle, to do things according to your demands and preferences, behave in ways that you want them to.  Worse still, don’t demand the drummer follow your lead. God does not dance to my tune or yours, and others were not made by Him to do that either. Sorry to have to break that to you…

So:

1: Remember: don’t cut off your nose to spite your face.

2: Remember: though you may want to set the beat for everyone around you, God doesn’t want you to try and do that and he won’t help you to accomplish that. You will be so much happier if you humbly receive the goodness of God on offer, and learn to play along with others rejoicing in the sound of their life and ways, rather than being frustrated by them.

I hope it may come to you as a relief rather than as a stimulus to foot stomping or stamping: YOU ARE NOT GOD. NEITHER AM I. As some of our American brothers and sisters try and get Scottish Christians to say, “Can I hear an ‘AMEN’ to that?”

P.S and N.B x 10: normally the attempt to get us to say “Amen”  is an unsuccessful exercise… so maybe just give up, please! The more you try, the more we will just sit there glowering, yes, not glowing in The Spirit, glowering at you in a threatening and discouraging way, daring you to try and continue to sound so positive! It’s a gift we have, so rare it is not even mentioned in the Bible in any of the list of gifts; but hey, most Scottish Christians have dispensed with those lists of gifts anyway, well one of the lists at least, so to add others, like glowering, is not a problem to us.  We could  even teach our gift to you if you want. Perhaps next time you come over, we could have a time of impartation, even  a mutual impartation: shouting and brooding silence, glowing and glowering can make for some interesting musical nuances. All shouting and dancing all the time would just be boring wouldn’t it. All brooding and glowering would just be, well, wonde…… I will stop there…

God bless

Kenny