Pam Padgett - teacher
A few days ago I was walking from the parking lot into WalMart. I
saw a couple of people and started to smile at them as I typically do.
But I felt stopped in this by the Holy Spirit.
I don't know these people or anything about them, yet I was "reaching
out" to them in this way, trying to show them I was a "nice" person so
they would think well of me in the brief seconds we passed and smile at me. Wanting a common bond of approving each other.
This was not an honest expression of being glad to see someone ... for I don't even know these people ... just flesh trying to satisfy itself by reaching out to other flesh.
During the time I was in the store as well, I continued to try to keep myself sober. Keeping it straight that these are
strangers of the world, not my friends. I tried to simply do my shopping without smiling
in the phony way I've done in the past so they might think well of me and smile at me.
When I left the store, I saw one of the store workers near the door. She continuously smiles and greets people as they come and go (her job is to be a "greeter" for the store). It was
hard for me to see this woman, I think because it was like seeing what I
have done in the past.
James 4:4 Ye adulterers and adulteresses, know ye not that the
friendship of the world is enmity with God? whosoever therefore will be a
friend of the world is the enemy of God.
friend:
- on the same side with
- having a common bond of affection with
- one who approves, supports, encourages
- one who is actively interested in and wishes success for
James 3:17 But the wisdom that is from above is first pure, then peaceable, gentle, and easy to be intreated, full of mercy and good fruits, without partiality, and without hypocrisy.
hypocrisy:
- play a part
- pretending to be what one is not or to feel what one does not