Daily Encounter: A Week-day Devotional by a staff of ACTS International.

Thursday, October 3, 2013

"A hot-tempered man must pay the penalty; if you rescue him, you will have to do it again."¹

The past few years have certainly been marked by many major crises and natural disasters … terrorist attacks, bombings, massive earthquakes and devastating floods.

In the midst of these disasters we witnessed incredible acts of compassion and unprecedented deeds of kindness by thousands of good-hearted people. We also witnessed dastardly evil: looting, crime, anger, rage, irresponsibility and the never-ending nauseating "playing the blame game."

Sadly, the world is filled with gripes* of wrath. This is about angry obsessive complainers who blame God, the government, their spouse, their boss, or anybody else for the problems they have. They gripe about the weather, gripe about the service be it good or bad, and even gripe when they are being helped by the sacrifice of others. These are those who avoid personal responsibility, live in a state of constant denial, and gripe, gripe, gripe.

Yes we need to help the helpless and those who are in a position where they literally cannot help themselves. But let's wake up! Stop rescuing those who can and need to help themselves. As the Bible teaches, if we rescue these people we will have to do it again … and again … and again. The most loving thing we can do for this kind of person is to help him to help himself. And we can only do this if he wants to become self-reliable and personally responsible. For those who can help themselves but don't want to, we need to get out of the way and let them crash in the hopes that this will bring them to their senses and face the reality of life as it really is.

Suggested prayer: "Dear God, please deliver me from the sin of being an obsessive complainer, playing the blame game, and/or for being irresponsible. And deliver me from rescuing those who are quite capable of and need to become responsible and learn to help themselves. Thank you for hearing and answering my prayer. Gratefully, in Jesus' name, amen."

* For those for whom English is not their primary language, "gripe" means to complain.

1. Proverbs 19:19 (NIV).

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