June 16

“It is often hard to sit still when we see our friends mismanaging matters and making what we think of as dreadful blunders.  But the divine order is for each one of us to do our own business and to refrain from meddling with the business of anyone else.”  Hannah Whitall Smith, Daily Secrets, 6/16

Why is this a “divine order”?  Paul makes this admonishment to the church in Thessalonica (1 Thessalonians 4:10-11), but is it for us as well?  If the business involves matters that are subject to one’s own preferences, then certainly we are not to make it our business to meddle.  But, unfortunately, we can find some “sin” label to attach to some affairs and therefore feel it our duty to get involved in correcting the situation.  Trying to weed through one’s own motives can get tricky, and it would seem it best to abstain altogether from minding other people’s affairs.  This is something I need to learn.  It’s not easy to just stop doing it, so I think that is why God has closed several doors to me.  I’ve been kept from this temptation in many instances and given only a small arena in which to learn how to discern when I should get involved and when I should not.  There are times God wants us to help another, but it is only those times that HE wants us to help.  The other times we are actually meddling in God’s plans for that person!

“So in the present case I tell you, keep away from these men and let them alone; for if this plan or this undertaking is of men, it will fail; but if it is of God, you will not be able to overthrow them.  You might even be found opposing God!”  Acts 5:38, 39