RESPONSIBILITIES OVER RIGHTS

This was taken in North Western Colorado.

This is my morning devotion and is more for me to do than anyone else in particular, I am just sharing what God is leading me to do , may it be a blessing to you all as well.

You and I as believers and Disciples of Christ have been called to freedom, but we must not turn our freedom into an opportunity to shrug our responsibilities, but through love we must serve one another. Galatians 5:13, my paraphrase.

We have  a culture that demands their rights at all times, but is that what our focus should be on as Maturing Children of God? It seems that many of us as Christians have lost our way, we have stumbled and gotten off course, I know I have. As Believers and followers of Christ our focus should never be on our rights but focusing on what we are personally responsible for in the Lord.
 For instance a husband may expect his wife to do as he thinks she should be doing in the relationship or a wife may expect her husband to  do what she  thinks he should be doing in their relationship. As parents we expect obedience from our children.Members of church may expect their pastors to do more, the pastor may expect his/her congregation to do more. A pregnant woman may demand the 'rights' for an abortion, since it is her body and she has the 'right' to do as she pleases. Then proceeds to demonstrate her 'irresponsible' use of her body to everyone! People we do not have an abortion problem we have an irresponsible sex problem.
In our walk with the Lord our focus should be on fulfilling our responsibilities and not insisting on our rights. Husband instead of focusing on your wife, be supportive of your wife by focusing on your responsibilities as an adult in the Lord by being a loving and caring husband as unto your Lord,which is your responsiblity. Wife ,focus on your responsibilities in the relationship and honoring and loving Him as you would unto the Lord. Parents having and raising obedient children is not your right, but loving, and  disciplining your children and nurturing and instructing  them in the Lord is your responsiblity. Being a member of the Body of Christ and of a local Congregation is an incredible privilege, not a right. This privilege comes with the awesome responsibility to be God's  children who are supposedly maturing in the Lord. It is not our rights that we need to focus on . When we look at others and expect them to be doing something,this is not our place or our responsiblity, that belongs to the Holy Spirit not us. Our focus should always be what our responsiblity is in all we do, and we will go way off track if all we do is focus on our so called rights, and what the other people should be or not be doing.
So let today be a day you focus on your responsibilities as Maturing Children of God and do what you need to be doing in the Lord ,you concentrate on being led of the Spirit in your thoughts and deeds and let God work on everyone else.
Anytime we insist on our rights at the expense of failing to assume our own responsibilities we will live a defeated life.
Let us mature in the Lord by loving others and allowing God His sole right to do through them as He decides, and let us not shirk our responsibilities, but let  God do His good pleasure of loving and working in and through us in the service of others.