And Now A Word From Our Sponsor...

So you may have noticed over on the left a list of blogs and web sites under the title "People Who Inspire Me." These truly are people who inspire me, all of them for differing reasons, but in some way they "spur me on to love and good works." Whether it is their commitment to the Truth, their perseverance under manifold trials, their love for the poor and the orphaned, or just the way they look at life: no doubt about it they all inspire me. So today as I was making my rounds I came across a post that in one sentence has convicted me to the core. It really was a wonderful post, so I'll let you read the whole thing, and then I fill you in on what has me so convicted. It is the post entitled

And Now A Word From Our Sponsor...

Now wasn't that an great post? So here is the part that really got to me:
There is one Scripture that keeps coming back to me from Proverbs, “Do not withhold good from those to whom it is due, when it is in the power of your hand to do so.” (Prov 3:27)
Just let that sink in for a moment, I mean really think about it, especially in the context of the blog post. I have to admit, I have been sitting here in my comfortable home, getting to know my two sweet new children, and falling more and more in love with them each day. Truly loving every minute of it. Yet in the back of my mind there is this constant thought "There, I am done, I have done it, I have adopted. I have given not one but two children a home, love, a family, a hope for a better future. Time for another family to step up and do the same." So there it is, isn't sin ugly? Honestly, that is what it is, sin. I can even give it a more specific name(s): Pride, Selfish Ambition, Complacency, Greed, Love of Self...I could go on and on.

"Do not withhold good from those to whom it is due, when it is in the power of your hand to do so." Couple that with James 1:27 "Religion that God our Father accepts as pure and faultless is this: to look after orphans and widows in their distress, and to keep oneself from being polluted by the world." It seems as though the God I serve deems it good to care for orphans, and I have once again allowed my thinking to be polluted by the world. Honestly, I am not in a position to bring another orphan into our home at this time. My husband is now unemployed after all :) However, this is not likely to always be the case. It will once again be within the power of our hand to open our home. Yet here I sit, with a proud heart, closed off to even the possibility of such an endeavor. What on earth is wrong with me? Have I not already been given exceedingly and abundantly more than I deserve? Is not this one who died for me, the one who became sin for me, who paid the price so that I could be adopted, worthy of all I have and all I am? Lord forgive me, and grant me the grace to die to self, so that I might live for you and your glory.