Watchful Eyes

This world has come to a point where people no longer feel a deep love for one another. It has been happening since time began, but people never really pay attention to the big picture.

All we do is judge according to our own standards instead of showing others God can and will love them right where they are. Repentance through faith is the only thing they need. Preachers preach, teachers teach...but why haven't we seen a difference? Perhaps because the very root of our lot in life has been removed. The love Jesus gave throughout the earths existence, giving chance after chance, gift after gift; and we still won't show the whole story to those around us.

I believe with all my heart that to receive everlasting life from God requires repentance. Honest to goodness, old fashioned asking for forgiveness. Putting one's faith in Someone they cannot see and trusting that He holds the only key to heaven.

How do we expect to help people understand the love of God by simply giving them what we feel His judgement should be? Telling a woman her shirt is too low, skirt is too short, a man he shouldn't look at women with lust and immoral desires, teens their music is wicked, parents they don't have enough restrictions on their kids...this will mean nothing to them without telling them why they should have the desire to change.

For a person to have the desire to do right, it would take more than any human has within himself. Because there is no good in man; not even a little.

What is needed, then, for a man to want to please a God he may or may not even believe in? Passion. Any human you ask will tell you they want to have something to live for. Something they would give their life for because they believe in it so much. To have that kind of passion would take something very big...something GOD big.

Here's the thing. We cannot expect to show people a life they want if the only thing we ever do is talk about how much better we are than them. You see, Christians have become so judgmental that people no longer want to listen to what we have to say. They hear us talking about the love of God but never see it for themselves.

I know I have talked about this quite often, but it is because I see it as a problem in my own life. I see someone with tattoos, a few extra piercings, a style of dress I don't agree with...whatever it may be...and I may not say anything out loud, but I sure go through some words in my head. I begin comparing my lifestyle to theirs and how I'm glad I don't "look like that." Whereas I understand there comes a point where someone is sinning with the way they live, it is my job to (LOVINGLY) point out what they are doing as wrong, but NOT my job to run all over them or treat them like trash if they don't "listen" to me or "change" for me.

There is a point where we all have to realize God made laws and guidelines, but He left many things UN-specified down to a T so He wouldn't have a bunch of cult-ish "just like them" people walking around. Honestly, what good would it do to have billions of people exactly the same traipsing around the earth. Everyone would believe the exact same way, dress the same way, look the same way...sounds more like a world being led by Hitler than a loving God, don't you think?

We should spend more time making sure we are following where God is leading us and less on what we think people's lives should look like according to us. The more we worry about the way others are living their lives, the less time we have to spend on our relationship with Christ. Before we know it, our relationship with Christ is going in a downward spiral and everyone else just thinks we're a bunch of judgmental creeps.

We will always be watched. I've learned it's part of life. People watch other people. But I don't believe it's right to have a lifestyle built on what other people tell you is right and wrong. The way I grew up (or more, the people I spent my time around) watched everything I did. Mainly because of the circumstance I was in; because of that, I have always feared people. I let people down, wasn't good enough, never wore/said/did the right thing. My parents loved me in every way possible, but for other people I didn't always measure up. I became a terrified person who worried about everyone else's opinions and stopped paying attention to what I felt God wanted me to do when I was out in public. This is a very dangerous place to be. I will not purposefully do something to or around someone knowing they will be offended by it, but one thing is a fact: this is my life. I live it for Christ and nobody else. I can be condemned, looked down upon and degraded by other people, but in God's eyes I will always have worth.

The watchful eye is of Christ, not mankind. Pleasing HIM is more important than pleasing THEM. My life is HIS, not THEIRS.

True love. That is the life I want. That is a life filled with Christ.