Terry Pruitt's Blog

For years I have been focused on Thanksgiving being about the good things that happen in my life. That is true, we should be thankful for those good things when we are blessed by God. I have founded it harder and wiser to also be thankful when things do not go my way. This is a favorite passage of one of my daughters. I was always surprised by her attraction to it. I heard a sermon podcast on it this past Monday about this passage. "I hear, and my body trembles; my lips quiver at the sound; rottenness enters into my bones; my legs tremble beneath me. Yet I will quietly wait for the day of trouble to come upon people who invade us. Though the fig tree should not blossom, nor fruit be on the vines, the produce of the olive fail and the fields yield no food, the flock be cut off from the fold and there be no herd in the stalls, yet I will rejoice in the LORD; I will take joy in the God of my salvation. GOD, the Lord, is my strength; he makes my feet...

Most of us has been jealous at one time or another. If you are reading this blog, that means you have been here on this sod long enough to experience it. A new insight for me from Romans 10:19, " But I ask, did Israel not understand? First Moses says, 'I will make you jealous of those who are not a nation; with a foolish nation I will make you angry'.” (ESV) While jealousy is not a positive attitude, in fact it can be one of the most negative ones, God says he is using it to shape those who are his people. While the Christian must be careful not to sanctify his sin, here is an intriguing concept, God can use my most negative attitudes to draw me to godliness. I can see the godliness and success of others, let that make me jealous, and then I pursue God according to his program of grace and faith and leave my own system of merit on the floor.