Who is Who?!

Who are the people around you and who are you to the people around you?!

We all have people around us who affect our lives in so many ways, but in the same way we are around other people and affect their lives in many ways!

So, who is who? Blessing or Curse?!

The example of Jesus and Peter:

Jesus had Peter around him. One of Jesus beloved disciples who was very close to Jesus. But who was Peter? We know that Peter was fiery character. That he denied Jesus 3 times. He was the man who cut of another man's ear when they came to arrest Jesus!

But did you know that he also was a possible stumbling block to Jesus?!

Matthew 16:20-23

From that time Jesus began to show his disciples that he must go to Jerusalem and suffer many things from the elders and chief priests and scribes, and be killed, and on the third day be raised.  And Peter took him aside and began to rebuke him, saying, “Far be it from you, Lord! This shall never happen to you.”  But he turned and said to Peter, “Get behind me, Satan! You are a hindrance to me. For you are not setting your mind on the things of God, but on the things of man.”

Michal, the wife of King David:

2 Samuel 6:15-23

 while he and all Israel were bringing up the ark of the Lord with shouts and the sound of trumpets.  As the ark of the Lord was entering the City of David, Michal daughter of Saul watched from a window. And when she saw King David leaping and dancing before the Lord, she despised him in her heart.  They brought the ark of the Lord and set it in its place inside the tent that David had pitched for it, and David sacrificed burnt offerings and fellowship offerings before the Lord.  After he had finished sacrificing the burnt offerings and fellowship offerings, he blessed the people in the name of the Lord Almighty.  Then he gave a loaf of bread, a cake of dates and a cake of raisins to each person in the whole crowd of Israelites, both men and women. And all the people went to their homes.  When David returned home to bless his household, Michal daughter of Saul came out to meet him and said, “How the king of Israel has distinguished himself today, going around half-naked in full view of the slave girls of his servants as any vulgar fellow would!”  David said to Michal, “It was before the Lord, who chose me rather than your father or anyone from his house when he appointed me ruler over the Lord’s people Israel—I will celebrate before the Lord.  I will become even more undignified than this, and I will be humiliated in my own eyes. But by these slave girls you spoke of, I will be held in honor.”  And Michal daughter of Saul had no children to the day of her death.

Michal was supposed to be a blessing to her husband! David had an awesome time in the presence of God and went home to his family to bless them! Sadly, his wife did not have a good attitude in her heart - it costed her dearly!

But the same principle also apply to a man towards his own wife!

Never despise your spouse or a man of God for that matter when you do not understand what they they are doing (especially in service to God)!

Bottom Line

Make sure that you do not become a stumbling block to someone else (even before you look for people who are possible stumbling blocks to you)!

Romans 14:13

Therefore let us not pass judgment on one another any longer, but rather decide never to put a stumbling block or hindrance in the way of a brother.

Luke 17:1

Jesus said to his disciples: “Things that cause people to stumble are bound to come, but woe to anyone through whom they come.

Prayer

Lord Jesus Christ, grant me the grace not to be a stumbling block to others. Where I have been a stumbling block in the past please forgive me and cleanse me from all unrighteousness. To those who are a stumbling block to me, I forgive them and pray for them for Grace and Mercy! In Jesus' name, amen!