{"id":19473,"date":"2022-08-28T16:27:20","date_gmt":"2022-08-28T16:27:20","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/livethrujesus.com\/?p=19473"},"modified":"2023-04-17T23:20:08","modified_gmt":"2023-04-17T23:20:08","slug":"who-do-you-think-you-are-youre-not-special","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/livethrujesus.com\/who-do-you-think-you-are-youre-not-special\/","title":{"rendered":"Who Do You Think You Are? You&#8217;re not Special?"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p class=\"has-text-align-center\">&#8220;Who do you think you are? <em>What makes you so special? You&#8217;re no better than me? Well, you just think you&#8217;re in charge of everything, don&#8217;t you? I&#8217;m just as capable as you are. I&#8217;ve had just about enough!<\/em>&#8220;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-text-align-left\">Have you ever had any of these thoughts towards a family member, a co-worker, a friend, or even someone at the church?  It&#8217;s easy to be a little bit jealous when you feel like you have good ideas too but everyone is following someone else. It is even more frustrating when that person wants <em>you <\/em>to follow them too, &amp; not only do you have a better idea, but you flat out think they are wrong. Or maybe you don&#8217;t have a better idea but you are just tired of them taking charge every time a situation arises. Maybe you would like to hear what others have to say for a change. While these are all normal reactions, we need to be careful how we react to others &amp; how we feel about ourselves. Let me present you with two siblings who had some of these thoughts about their brother so you can see God&#8217;s reaction to them. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<blockquote class=\"wp-block-quote has-text-align-center is-layout-flow wp-block-quote-is-layout-flow\">\n<p>They said, \u201cHas the&nbsp;Lord&nbsp;indeed spoken only through&nbsp;Moses?&nbsp;Has He not spoken through us also?\u201d And the&nbsp;Lord&nbsp;heard&nbsp;it<em>.<\/em> (Now the man Moses was very humble, more than all men who&nbsp;were&nbsp;on the face of the earth.)  Suddenly the&nbsp;Lord&nbsp;said to Moses, Aaron, and Miriam, \u201cCome out, you three, to the tabernacle of meeting!\u201d So the three came out.&nbsp;Then the&nbsp;Lord&nbsp;came down in the pillar of cloud and stood&nbsp;in&nbsp;the door of the tabernacle, &amp; called Aaron &amp; Miriam. They both went forward.&nbsp;Then He said, \u201cHear now My words: If there is a prophet among you, I, the&nbsp;Lord, make Myself known to him&nbsp;in a vision. I speak to him&nbsp;in a dream.<sup>&nbsp;<\/sup>Not so with&nbsp;My servant Moses. He is faithful in all&nbsp;My house.<sup>&nbsp;<\/sup>I speak with him&nbsp;face to face, even&nbsp;plainly,&nbsp;and not in&nbsp;dark sayings, &amp; he sees&nbsp;the form of the&nbsp;Lord. Why then&nbsp;were you not afraid to speak against My servant Moses?\u201d So the anger of the&nbsp;Lord was aroused against them, and He departed.&nbsp;When the cloud departed from above the tabernacle, suddenly Miriam&nbsp;became&nbsp;leprous, as&nbsp;white as&nbsp;snow. Then Aaron turned toward Miriam, &amp; there she was, a leper.&nbsp;So Aaron said to Moses, \u201cOh, my lord! Please&nbsp;do not lay&nbsp;this&nbsp;sin on us, in which we have done foolishly &amp; in which we have sinned. Please&nbsp;don&#8217;t let her be as one dead whose flesh is half consumed when he comes out of his mother\u2019s womb!\u201d   So Moses cried out to the&nbsp;Lord, saying, \u201cPlease&nbsp;heal her, O God, I pray!\u201d <\/p>\n<cite>Numbers 12<\/cite><\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n<p>This is a scene that has played out in every household at one time or another. Siblings begin arguing &amp; the parent says, &#8220;Come here right now! I am gonna settle this once and for all.&#8221; The difference is that the parent in this situation is the Lord, God, &amp; the child is His beloved servant Moses. God had chosen him to be the Israelites&#8217; deliverer. The Lord spoke to him face to face &amp; He even let Moses see His <a href=\"https:\/\/www.biblegateway.com\/passage\/?search=exodus+34%3A6-7&amp;version=NKJV\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">glorious form.<\/a> He had a special relationship with Moses! He could not believe the nerve they had to talk about His beloved servant that way. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>If you have children, you can relate. We get very protective when we see someone falsely accusing them, even if it is another family member. When my own children were young &amp; got angry at each other, if one said something ugly about the other to me, I would always say, &#8220;That is my child you are talking about.&#8221; As parents, we do not like to watch other people be mean to our children, especially if we know they will not speak up for themselves. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>So, God quickly stepped in &amp; set the record straight. They didn&#8217;t know <em>what <\/em>they were talking about &amp; they certainly had forgotten <em>who<\/em> they were talking about. Maybe God spoke to them also &amp; maybe they served Him too, but Moses was the only man God spoke to so intimately &amp; directly and the only man who had seen Him so fully. He wasn&#8217;t placing himself above them. God had chosen Him for that role. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Also, when my children were young &amp; they would try to correct me in any way, I would always tell them that it was not their place. If they truly felt that I had done something wrong, they could pray and ask God to correct me, but they could not. It wasn&#8217;t their place to rebuke me anymore than it was Aaron &amp; Miriam&#8217;s place to rebuke Moses. God could reprimand Him if it was needed. He&#8217;s the parent &amp; He saw everything that was going on. If Moses needed to be corrected, then He would do it. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Although, in this instance, Moses did not need correcting. Instead, His siblings were just jealous &amp; had a self-righteous attitude that needed to be put in check. So, think back to a time when you had those feelings towards someone else. Were you being self-righteous? Did you think too highly of yourself or too little of them? Was God offended that you would speak against His beloved servant that way? <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>If they were wrong, should you have prayed &amp; asked God to change their heart instead of taking it into your own hands? Or at the least, could you have been nicer in your criticism &amp; had a more gracious attitude? We need to make sure that we have a clean conscience before we start correcting others.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-text-align-center\">\u201cJudge&nbsp;not, that you be not judged.&nbsp;For with what&nbsp;judgment you judge, you will be judged. With the measure you use, it will be measured back to you.&nbsp;Why do you look at the speck in your brother\u2019s eye, but do not consider the plank in your own eye?&nbsp;Or how can you say to your brother, \u2018Let me remove the speck from your eye\u2019 and look, a plank&nbsp;is&nbsp;in your own eye?<sup> <\/sup>Hypocrite! First remove the plank from your own eye, and then you will see clearly to remove the speck from your brother\u2019s eye.&#8221; Matthew 7:1-5<em style=\"font-weight: bold;\">&nbsp; <\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-text-align-left\"> Also, notice that instead of reveling in Miriam&#8217;s punishment, He asked God for mercy on her behalf. Do we have enough love &amp; grace to pray for others when they speak out against us?&nbsp; <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-text-align-center\">&#8220;Let&nbsp;love&nbsp;be&nbsp;without hypocrisy.&nbsp;Abhor what is evil. Cling to what is good.<sup>&nbsp;<\/sup>Be&nbsp;kindly affectionate to one another with brotherly love,&nbsp;in honor giving preference to one another, not lagging in diligence, fervent in spirit, serving the Lord,<sup>&nbsp;<\/sup>rejoicing in hope, patient in tribulation, continuing steadfastly in prayer, distributing to the needs of the saints,&nbsp;given to hospitality. Bless those who persecute you; bless and do not curse.&nbsp;Rejoice with those who rejoice, and weep with those who weep.&nbsp;Be of the same mind toward one another.&nbsp;Do not set your mind on high things, but associate with the humble. Do not be wise in your own opinion. Repay no one evil for evil.&nbsp;Have&nbsp;regard for good things in the sight of all men.&nbsp;If it is possible, as much as depends on you,&nbsp;live peaceably with all men.<sup>&nbsp;<\/sup>Beloved,&nbsp;do not avenge yourselves, but&nbsp;rather&nbsp;give place to wrath. For it is written,&nbsp;\u201cVengeance&nbsp;is&nbsp;Mine, I will repay,\u201d says the Lord.&nbsp;Therefore, \u201cIf your enemy is hungry, feed him. If he is thirsty, give him a drink. For in so doing you will heap coals of fire on his head.\u201d Do not be overcome by evil, but&nbsp;overcome evil with good.&#8221; Romans 12:9-21<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Excerpt from Episode 84 &#8220;God&#8217;s Beloved&#8221; on <a href=\"https:\/\/livethrujesus.podigee.io\/84-gods-beloved\" title=\"\">Podcast<\/a> and YouTube<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>&#8220;Who do you think you are? What makes you so special? You&#8217;re no better than me? I&#8217;m just as capable as you.&#8221; Have you ever had these thoughts?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":19484,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":true,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"nf_dc_page":"","om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[22,682,1116,851,58,416,1109,1126,1117],"tags":[1123,1121,520,1118,1122,838,1119,69,372,521,1124,1125],"class_list":["post-19473","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-actions","category-grace","category-judgment","category-leadership","category-love","category-moses","category-numbers","category-pride","category-self-righteous","tag-correction","tag-criticism","tag-humility","tag-jealousy","tag-judgment","tag-kindness","tag-leadership","tag-mercy","tag-moses","tag-pride","tag-rebuke","tag-self-righteous","latest_post"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"aioseo_notices":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/livethrujesus.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/08\/pexels-photo-684387.jpeg?fit=1880%2C1245&ssl=1","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p7Frj4-545","jetpack-related-posts":[],"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/livethrujesus.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19473","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/livethrujesus.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/livethrujesus.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/livethrujesus.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/livethrujesus.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=19473"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/livethrujesus.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19473\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":19843,"href":"https:\/\/livethrujesus.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19473\/revisions\/19843"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/livethrujesus.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/19484"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/livethrujesus.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=19473"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/livethrujesus.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=19473"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/livethrujesus.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=19473"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}