Friday, July 11, 2008

A Negative Report

Do you know anyone who is negative? Are you negative? I was having a conversation with someone the other day and after I left, I felt so drained by her negativity. According to her, everything was going wrong in her life. After she told me of her problems, she went on to talk ugly about other people. I thought 100 pounds of lead had been dumped on me!

In Numbers, the Israelites got an evil report from the Hebrew spies about the land they were to go to and it was pretty discouraging. Number 13:32 says, "So they brought the Israelites an evil report of the land which they had scouted out, saying, The land through which we went to spy it out is a land that devours its inhabitants. And all the people that we saw in it are men of great stature."

Not only are we not to talk negatively about our circumstances, as the Hebrew spies did and came under the Lord's correction; we are also not to talk negatively about other people. Let's face it, there is no perfect church, perfect people, perfect workplace, perfect house, or perfect family.

Everything in this world is going to be imperfect. In the Bible, Paul tells us that when Jesus comes back to receive us, we are going to take off the corruptible and put on the incorruptible. But as long as we are here on this earth, we are always going to have to contend with corruption including other people.

We all are a "mixed bag". We have some good and some bad in us. God doesn't want us to magnify the bad in others or in ourselves. He wants us to magnify the good. I Peter 4:8 says, "Love covers a multitude of sins." That's what you and I are to do. We are go cover, not expose, people's imperfections. When we do so, we'll see them the way God sees them.

2 comments:

John said...

I know some people like that and it really does seem to just drain the life right out of you. Fortunately I can limit my exposure because it can be very contagious. Smiles and being positive can also be contagious.

Barbara said...

My goal for every day is to get a smile from everyone. I refuse to let anyone have a negative attitude around me! The store clerk at the checkout is my favorite--I absolutely harrass them until they burst out with a smile or laugh. "That day is lost in which one does not laugh." On this day, I choose to be positive and happy--I decided that a long time ago. Life is too short to be surrounded by these people who don't believe that.