"The Darker Side of Life"

"Our fathers understood not thy wonders in Egypt; they remembered not the multitude of thy mercies; but provoked him at the sea, even at the Red sea." (Psalms 106:7)

 I know I have mentioned this before, but sometimes I will google the title, or a portion of it, to see the meaning that is presented; backside comes with the image of a zebra's rear end, so you can only imagine what comes after that. Just don't go there! Jesus had some very direct and strong words for those religious leaders; but His point about them finishing, that was beyond perfect, it was spot-on! There is absolutely no way that we can know the darkness we are capable of, until it has been manifested in our lives. Within the verse above there are three very important principles to the way our heart and mind can blind us to the darkness that is within us. First of all, we fail to understand how God works in and through certain things that might happen around us; making light of the work that God might be doing in the people around us, not because we don't care about them, but we care more about ourselves. If you recall, the more God pressed upon the Egyptians, the more the Egyptians pressed upon the children of Israel. It had gotten to a point where the children of Israel were cursing Moses and Aaron for causing their lives to become harder and more miserable. All along, God was doing a work, a mighty works, and it was right there in front of them; but they failed to see the magnitude of what was going on. It is really not that hard to see it happening in our own lives, on a much smaller scale, but nonetheless, it happens. We ask for God to do something in our life, and instead of doing what we ask, He makes it harder for us to deal with what we asked for. You are either going to do one of two things, run from God, or run towards Him. The second is pretty much predicated upon that reaction, because if you remember God's great mercy, then you are going to run towards Him no matter what! It is when we fail to remember how merciful that He is, that is when we start blaming God for all the bad stuff, instead of thanking Him for all the good. Which brings us to the final of the three, provoking God; which is where you can totally get lost in your emotions and feelings over your situation or experience, and do things that are hard to take back...

"Wisdom shouts in the streets. She cries out in the public square. She calls to crowds along the main street, to those gathered in front of the city gates: "How long, you simpletons, will you insist on being simpleminded? How long will you mockers relish in your mocking? How long will you fools hate knowledge? Come and listen to my counsel. I'll share my heart with you and make you wise. "I called you so often, but you wouldn't come. I reached out to you, but you paid no attention. You ignored my advice and rejected the correction I offered."" (Proverbs 1:20-25) NLT