Color Us Accountable

I snapped this picture the other day of Beaux and Hank monitoring the backyard.  I’ve tried to tell the boys that the fishermen aren’t a threat to us but my suspicious canines aren’t buying. Bless their overzealous hearts. Still, their diligence to stand guard is a great illustration of a scriptural truth I want us to look at today.

Hebrews 12:15 reads, “Looking diligently lest any man fail of the grace of God; lest any root of bitterness springing up trouble you, and thereby many be defiled.”⁣
⁣
Looking diligently comes from the Greek word episkopos. It’s taken from epi, meaning over, and skopos, meaning to look. Together it means to look over or oversee. It’s a word that’s translated as bishop in 1 Timothy 3:1. ⁣
⁣
You and I are the bishop of our own souls— guarding against resentment and bitterness. I’m accountable for what I think and hide and nurture in my heart. And God holds me responsible for these secret guarded thoughts— not for another’s person’s actions or words, (or what I think is the lack of them) but for what I’m choosing to do with them. ⁣
⁣
Anger becomes wrath, becomes bitterness, becomes resentment, becomes unforgiveness. If we are filled with these things, it’s because we have let them take root and grow in us. Looking diligently…over what we are choosing to store in our hearts. We’ll never walk free if we’re harboring ill will. ⁣
⁣
The blessed good news is that the Holy Spirit of God is eager to work with us to uproot such ugly and to replace it with His perspective, and with the fruits of the Spirit. If we will but ask. Oh— and keep asking. ⁣
⁣
Let’s not make excuses for our attitudes. ⁣
Let’s not explain them. ⁣
Let’s ask the Holy Spirit to change them! ⁣

Hugs, Shellie
⁣