It Must Be For Someone Else

Many times when we hear a message, read a book or see a movie that really makes us think about life, how short it is and what more we should do, we have a good feeling for a while and then we get back into our every day routine. Other times we hear something and we think it would be really good for someone else to hear that same message or read that same book so they can apply the lessons learned to their lives.

Before we are quick to share that message with others, we need to look deep into our own lives and see what God wants us to learn from it. Before we make a list of how many people we know who can improve and make changes in their lives from that message we need to be sure we have applied it to our own lives and lean on God to know whether or not that message was meant for us or for them.

1 Timothy 4:16 “Keep a close watch on how you live and on your teaching. Stay true to what is right for the sake of your own salvation and the salvation of those who hear you.”

We are too often ready to tell others what we believe they need to hear. We give them a scripture. We share a devotion with them. We sometimes use wise words in a way to tell others we want them to change. The best thing to do when we are given a message is to apply it to our own lives. God has that certain message for us and when we disregard it thinking it must be for someone else, we are missing what He is trying to tell us.

It is not easy to see what changes we need to make in our lives when we are busy looking around at other people’s faults. It is not easy to recognize these changes, understand the message and make these changes by ourselves. We need God. We need to allow God to work through us. We need Him to send us the message He wants us to hear which will be personally for us and we need to ask Him to change us to what He wants us to be.

It’s time we stop thinking about how we need to look for ways to change other people. It is okay to look for ways to help others when God directs us to, but we need to be sure we are making the changes in ourselves so we can live for God and we can follow His direction to help others. We can’t let all the messages funnel through us to others without making the change we need in ourselves first.

When we try to live a life where we are giving people advice on how to change and we don’t take the messages God gives us to make changes in our lives, we won’t be effective in helping others. We need to recognize each message God gives us in our daily lives. We need to ask Him to let us know if the message is for us to apply to our own lives or if we need to pass it on to help other so we can make a difference.