Contempt One For Another

A Song of Ascents.
1 To you I lift up my eyes, O you who are enthroned in the heavens! 2 Behold, as the eyes of servants look to the hand of their master, as the eyes of a maidservant to the hand of her mistress, so our eyes look to the Lord our God, till he has mercy upon us. 3  Have mercy upon us, O Lord, have mercy upon us, for we have had more than enough of contempt. 4 Our soul has had more than enough of the scorn of those who are at ease, of the contempt of the proud.

Psalms 123:1-4 (ESV)

Often the Psalms are written a little different than what you might think in your first reading of one. This Psalm is asking God to provide mercy to Israeli; because as His chosen people, all the other nations in the world have contempt for them. This is true even today.  In many ways the church today and each individual who professes Jesus as Lord faces these same issues.

The word contempt caught my mind as I read this scripture and I had to think about what that means to my walk as a Christian. You see the word contempt means to have disdain towards someone or something, it means to be despised or disgraced.  Why would that apply to our lives as Christians? Well to be honest often we will find ourselves on the receiving end of contempt when we try to live a life of holiness and service to God. Not just from the outside world but also from our fellow Christians. You see jealousy breeds contempt. When we see one person or group appearing to be blessed; we often out of our flesh, begin to have issues with the individual who is being blessed. You know it’s funny to a point but also a little sad; but that same person you have mercy on when they are struggling. Will be the person you resent the most when God delivers them out of their trials. We may find ourselves living in contempt of those who seem to be favored by the pastor or staff. You might have been doing a job in the church for years and someone new comes along and you see yourself being replaced. All these issues bring contempt to our walks and in that contempt we open opportunities for the devil to work in and around us. It works from the top down and the bottom up we can all fall into this pattern and when it happens the body of Christ will struggle and can even fail. I ask you today are you harboring contempt for a brother or sister in Christ? If the answer is yes; don’t you think it’s time to ask God to bring His grace and mercy into the situation? Since contempt comes from our own desires; forgiveness must also begin with us. We must allow God to begin a change in our own heart and as He works on us He will remove those issues that lead to contempt. I pray you have a truly blessed day as you walk in the light of His word.