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Division Livin'

God's Kindness Quest Series

Imperfect people struggle to understand, as best they can

God's ways confound the wise and befuddle the mind of man

 

One interprets Scripture to mean this, another claims that

Egos, arrogance, and pride instigate a spat

 

Waylaid, the focus becomes proving our point

Wouldn't we spread the gospel further if our efforts were joint

 

What if we displayed grace to share, learn, and discuss

Without pride, ego, or fuss

 

As God views our interactions from above

Will he witness us reflecting his love

 

The world shakes their heads as we quarrel with each other

Will a time come when we learn to honor one another

 

Brother against brother, the conflict never ends

When will we serve others as friends

 

What if we applied truth with grace, instead of division

Illustrating God’s love in our daily livin'

 

Snits over who’s right or wrong

Forgetting love is the answer all along

 

Is he the God of law or grace

The debate will end when we stand before him face-to-face

 

Imperfect people struggle to understand, as best they can

God's ways confound the wise and befuddle the mind of man

Interactive Questions

Jeremiah 33:3 (NIV), "Call to me and I will answer you and tell you great and unsearchable things you do not know."

  • What emotions, memories, thoughts, convictions, or inspirations bubbled up while reading the poem?

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  • Father God, what do you want me to know about my answers to the previous question? 

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  • Lord, is there any pride or ego in my mindsets, actions, or interactions?

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  • Lord, am I an instrument of peace or division? How so?

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  • Peace:

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  • Division:

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  • Lord, where have I allowed differences to drive a wedge, bringing ruin to relationships you wanted continued?  

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  • Lord, why did you want me to continue those relationships?

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  • Lord, how can I love people and develop co-laboring relationships, despite disagreements? 

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  • Lord, what is the value of having people with differing opinions as friends and co-laborers in my life? ​

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  • Lord, teach me how to have a Kingdom mindset with a servant's heart. What is your first lesson to get me started? 

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  • ​Father God, is there anything else you want to share with me at this moment?

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Prayer

James 5:16 (NLT),  "... The earnest prayer of a righteous person has great power and produces wonderful results.​"

Father God, I am one of those imperfect people described in the poem. Imperfect in my understanding. Imperfect in my daily livin’. Imperfect in my judgments. 

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Where I've been a vessel of division, causing disruption rather than furthering unity, forgive me. Where I have misrepresented your love to others, forgive me and cleanse them of that unrighteousness, defilement, and distortion. Where I have dishonored or disrespected others, been self-seeking, easily angered, and kept a record of wrongs in my heart, forgive me. I forgive each person who has dishonored and disrespected me. 

 

Where I have broken relationships or covenants due to unyielding attitudes, forgive me. Lord, build a bridge for restoration and reconciliation as you see fit.

 

Show me your heart in every situation, helping me to walk humbly in your ways. May others be drawn to you through me. Make me an instrument of peace, unity, and truth, all blanketed in your loving-kindness. Amen.

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  • Lord, what did this prayer activate in accordance with James 5:16?

 

  • ​Tweak the existing prayer as desired or craft a new personalized one.

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Scripture

2 Timothy 3:16 (NLT), "All Scripture is inspired by God and is useful to teach us what is true ..."

Isaiah 55:8-9 (NLT)

"'My thoughts are nothing like your thoughts,' says the Lord. 'And my ways are far beyond anything you could imagine. For just as the heavens are higher than the earth, so my ways are higher than your ways and my thoughts higher than your thoughts.'"

 

1 Corinthians 1:26-31 (MSG)

"Take a good look, friends, at who you were when you got called into this life. I don’t see many of 'the brightest and the best' among you, not many influential, not many from high-society families. Isn’t it obvious that God deliberately chose men and women that the culture overlooks and exploits and abuses, chose these 'nobodies' to expose the hollow pretensions of the 'somebodies'? That makes it quite clear that none of you can get by with blowing your own horn before God. Everything that we have—right thinking and right living, a clean slate and a fresh start—comes from God by way of Jesus Christ. That’s why we have the saying, 'If you’re going to blow a horn, blow a trumpet for God.'"

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Proverbs 12:15 (NLT)

"Fools think their own way is right, but the wise listen to others."

 

Proverbs 12:18 (NLT)

"Some people make cutting remarks, but the words of the wise bring healing."

 

Proverbs 12:23 (NLT)

"The wise don’t make a show of their knowledge, but fools broadcast their foolishness."

 

Proverbs 15:2 (NLT) 

"The tongue of the wise makes knowledge appealing, but the mouth of a fool belches out foolishness."

 

Proverbs 15:12 (NLT)

"Mockers hate to be corrected, so they stay away from the wise."

 

Isaiah 40:28 (NLT)
"Have you never heard? Have you never understood? The Lord is the everlasting God, the Creator of all the earth. He never grows weak or weary. No one can measure the depths of his understanding."

 

Luke 6:39-42 (NLT)

"Then Jesus gave the following illustration: 'Can one blind person lead another? Won’t they both fall into a ditch? Students are not greater than their teacher. But the student who is fully trained will become like the teacher. And why worry about a speck in your friend’s eye when you have a log in your own? How can you think of saying, 'Friend, let me help you get rid of that speck in your eye,’ when you can’t see past the log in your own eye? Hypocrite! First get rid of the log in your own eye; then you will see well enough to deal with the speck in your friend’s eye.'"

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1 Corinthians 13:1-13 (NLT)

“If I could speak all the languages of earth and of angels, but didn’t love others, I would only be a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal. If I had the gift of prophecy, and if I understood all of God’s secret plans and possessed all knowledge, and if I had such faith that I could move mountains, but didn’t love others, I would be nothing. If I gave everything I have to the poor and even sacrificed my body, I could boast about it; but if I didn’t love others, I would have gained nothing. Love is patient and kind. Love is not jealous or boastful or proud or rude. It does not demand its own way. It is not irritable, and it keeps no record of being wronged. It does not rejoice about injustice but rejoices whenever the truth wins out. Love never gives up, never loses faith, is always hopeful, and endures through every circumstance. Prophecy and speaking in unknown languages and special knowledge will become useless. But love will last forever! Now our knowledge is partial and incomplete, and even the gift of prophecy reveals only part of the whole picture! But when the time of perfection comes, these partial things will become useless. When I was a child, I spoke and thought and reasoned as a child. But when I grew up, I put away childish things. Now we see things imperfectly, like puzzling reflections in a mirror, but then we will see everything with perfect clarity. All that I know now is partial and incomplete, but then I will know everything completely, just as God now knows me completely. Three things will last forever—faith, hope, and love—and the greatest of these is love.”

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  • List meaningful Bible verses which come to mind regarding this poem, the interactive questions, and prayer.

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