Lessons to be Learned

As I was pondering the Love of God today, I realized how often we take Him for granted and use Him for our own comfort. We make our plans and ask God to carry out for us what we want. We don't ask Him for His wisdom but tell Him what we think His Word says. We want him near in case we need Him, but are angry when He interferes to bring His wisdom. We claim He said things He didn't say, we blame Him for things He didn't do, and leave Him out of the planning of our lives unless our plan doesn't work out the way we wanted.
How grieved He must be, when we are willing to listen to human experts, but not the Word of God. We disobey Him and pretend that He told us to do so. When we dishonor Him, we blame the messanger that brought the rebuke, rather than aknowledging His chastening as a redirection of our attitudes and our plans.
How often we ignore the warnings and instruction of the older believers who have walked with Him many many years. How unfortunate that we will not grow. Until we are able to own our faults, confessing that we mess up, learning from it and changing what needs to be changed we will continue to slide backwards until very little of Christ's character is seen in us. Insead we get angry, carry on as usual and before we know it we are old, bitter and have lost what wisdom we could have gained from the instruction and rebuke of the older generation. We surrounded ourselves with "flaterers" who helped solidify our pomopous idealistic view of ourselves. We love the beautiful people who dress right, eat right, do the right social things. But who very often have spent so much time on these aspects of life that they failed to develop character qualities to mature into thinking, self sacraficing, caring human beings who love the Lord above all else.
If we would pray when we are challenged, I know the Lord would reveal a lesson to be learned and an attituded to be adjusted. It is rare that we grow during the easy pleasurable times. It is the difficult times that grow us, but only if we lay down our pride and humble ourselves before the Lord desiring to learn and change.
Gwendolyn