Giving the Word

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Wanna share with you something I have been reading about lately. Mother Teresa reminded that we are mere tools in the hands of God. We are put on earth to be filled with His Holy Spirit and then do His works with this Spirit. That's all. When we speak His Word, we have done our part, if that is what the Spirit has instructed us to do at that particular moment in time.

Obedience is key. We have to guard ourselves against then expecting something in return. This is not a pure motive, but selfishness. We are not to then stand in judgment of the hearer's reaction toward the Word. We need to trust that the Word has been planted if the person was open to receive, and if the person was not, to pray that God will use another person in another situation at another time to open that person's heart to receive His Word. (Also, Mother Teresa never asks people why they have AIDS, or leprosy, etc, but deals with their immediate need without judgement. I love that! We don't need to know people's history to help them in their present predicament.)

From the point of view of the person on the receiving end, remember that by nature we want to save face when someone tells us something that could embarrass us, like a rebuke or even a compliment. We won't necessarily confess right then and there that the person giving us the message is right, and we are sorry, or make a commitment to change our ways straight away, or respond that we know how fabulous we are. After all, our greatest sin to overcome is our pride.

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