People and Expectations

Written by Ronald A. Turner of Lincoln Congregation

     Have you ever thought about how God sees people?   First of all, how do you see people?   Do you see problems, handicaps, races, religions and lots more?  People are pretty complex.  I’ve never met a simple person.  Even a fictional person like Forest Gump wasn’t too easy to figure out.

     No two people are the same so we don’t need to hire a public relations expert to tell us that we have to treat different people in different ways. 

     We may try the same thing with 10 people and get different results.  For example, you might send 10 letters to friends or family, but that doesn’t mean each person is going to write you back or give you a call to thank you.  Remember how Jesus healed 10 lepers and only one came back to thank Him.  It’s often seemed to be some sort of numbers game to me.  Are we also lucky if we get one response out of ten?  I don’t know the answer.  Will we get better results than Jesus?   That’s pretty tough.

     My advice is to be grateful for the positive responses you do get.  I’ve always tried to do that.  But, I fail sometimes and get upset at the negative responses (or no response at all).  Rejection in the form of something ugly being said or just hearing nothing at all when you have your heart set on making a connection with someone is painful.  Count the good no matter what, and remember Jesus was also rejected, to the point of death.

     Here’s the answer to what God sees in a person:  “God sees not as a man sees, for man looks at the outward appearance, but the Lord looks at the heart.”  (I Sam. 16:7)

     When dealing with people and what to expect of life, look at the heart.  That’s where God lives!