Matthew 7

I'm qualifying this writing with I had so much to say about the chapter that I feel I didn't say anything. But for what it is worth:

Let's start with the promise: ask and it shall be given to you, seek and you shall find...God will let us know what is up. In my endeavour to find out what God wants for the rest of my life, the promise is that if I look I will find. Wisdom will be given to me if time is spent searching and asking. I have no question that this is real and true. v11: if you...know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more shall your Father who is in heaven give what is good to those who ask Him.! Wow...there is a promise. Feel that warmth. I know how much I would love to have my children ask for guidance and how much I would like to give it, knowing that I have lived so much more life than they...think about God who is perfect, the wisdom He has, and how He wants us to seek it from Him and how much He wants to give it. He wants to give it! Ask! Take! Be blessed!! I will admit here, that spending time in prayer is not easy for me. It is much easier to read and study than to actually sit down and spend an intimate moment with God. I want to spend more time there, with Him. There is something about me that being still and quiet, finding time alone with God eludes me. My insides can't slow down enough. This needs to change. Oh, but then the promise: knock and it shall be opened to you.

The chapter begins with judgement. Do not judge lest you be judged. Amen! None of us want to be judged unfairly so why do we continue to judge others? But we do. I think so much about the world would be changed if we could eliminate this one thing. Why do we do it? What does it give us? Man how we love to have dirt on someone else. Why? But then want mercy when it all turns against us. LOL For in the way you judge, you will be judged; and by your standard of measure, it will be measured to you. Again, why do we do it?

v. 12 is the Golden Rule: Treat people how you want people to treat you. Now, why is this so hard? Same reason as above. For some reason we want to be on top, more powerful, more knowledgeable...but to what gain? What does it get us if we are better than someone else at anything? Accolades? The chance to win "oh wows"? What does any of this matter? Mind you, I'm the first to say I need positive reinforcement in my life; I need to feel like I am liked and am doing a good job...but to the detriment of someone else? I hope not.

The last part of the chapter is about fruit again. About following someone who's fruit does not match the talk he is talking. You want to build upon the rock and not the sand, for obvious reasons. I know all of us have followed someone in our lives that has bamboozled us and turned out to be someone different than he claimed. But it is our fault for not having done do diligents and found out who they were and what they stood for or maybe in too much of a hurry to believe that which seemed appealing.