Beware!

My little pound puppy "Fillie"

Isn't she cute?

   Last night I was reading a little bit in Proverbs before I went to bed. There's always one verse that jumps out at me more than the others. Last night it was this: Proverbs 8:13 "¹³ To fear the LORD is to hate evil; I hate pride and arrogance, evil behavior and perverse speech."
   As Christians (Christ followers) we need to abhor these things. Evil behavior and perverse speech should be obvious no-no's, however our society prods us on to be proud of ourselves, take care of ourselves because we deserve it for all of our hard work. Now I'm not into self loathing, but it's our Lord who takes care of us, and he deserves the praise and honor for all of HIS hard work. The work that we do really doesn't seem as hard when you put it into the Lord's hands before you do it.  I believe that our first priority is giving the Lord honor in every area of our lives, and this is when the deceiver will have no place with us. The deceiver would want to tell you, " Your work is too hard, you can't do it. But if you actually DO complete it then you need to look at yourself in the mirror and pat yourself on the back because you are wonderful and worthy of the praise!!!" See how deceptive? On it's own, it seems so true, and is in a way. But how empty! But if you look at those couple of sentences and replace them with, "Your work is too hard, unless the Lord is in it. And if He's helping you do the work then you thank the Lord and praise Him because he's made you wonderfully out of His goodness, and He is worthy of praise!" We need to inject the praise of our Father into society, and let the Holy Spirit do His work in the midst. Let God be the one to pat you on the back:)