Be encouraged and know that God has you in mind. Yes, you. He has not forgotten you. Jesus placed His life on the line for you. God does not change. God expects us to be faithful. He expects us to trust Him even when things are going the opposite direction.
Look to His Word for it never changes. Lord we confess that we are weak and do not understand what You desire. Our lips and hearts may murmur against You, but we ask You this day for forgiveness. Forgive us and grant us faith to hold to Your anchor – Your sure Word. Guide us today so that we may be faithful to You and trust You, knowing that You never fail. Knowing that you've never lost a battle. Knowing that we will come out as victors and not victims.
I like the idea behind the quote. It's solid and true. However, Pastor Doreen makes a contradiction in her writing (see the blue highlighted items). We DO know what God desires and she just pointed it out right above that statement. He expects us to be faithful and obey his commandments. Which commandments? The 2 great commandments pretty much cover it - Love God above all else is the greatest commandment and the 2nd is like it - Love others. If you do those two things, you know what God desires and you're doing it. Therefore since God is bound when we do what He says, we're promised to be blessed LIBERALLY. He will remove stumbling blocks from our path and make it clear.
BUT, this will all be done on HIS time, according to HIS will, and we have to be humble enough to accept that and live by faith.
We can talk ourselves into defeat or we can talk ourselves into victory - we are creatures of our thinking.
3/31/07 - Hit with a brick, leaving the dent there...
I think - or what I got out of that - was that we don't know God's plans for us - but still need to have faith that His will/plan is the right one for us....and to trust Him.
....Understand, that I can't, not be what I am I'm not the milk, and Cheerios in your spoon ~ Avril Lavigne ~ ..."Nobody's Fool"...
OK, I can see that. But I know what God's plan is for me (and for all of us, really). He wants us all to be HAPPY. And to know what happiness is, we have to pass through pain and sorrow sometimes. How would we know what happiness is without its opposite? We couldn't. That's why Adam and Eve left the Garden of Eden - to pass through sorrow so they might know JOY!
God does NOT plan each step along the path for us. He gives us tests and challenges, and guess what - LIFE HAPPENS. Other people touch our lives for good and bad (our spouses for instance) and their level of obedience to God's commandments may not be in line with ours. At times our level of obedience is not in line and WE make mistakes. Fortunately, that's why we received the gift of the Atonement from Him as he gave his Only Begotten Son - to be forgiven and have His mercy take the place of justice.
So no, we don't know exactly how our lives will go, but we do know what God wants us to do. Ultimately our level of happiness is dependent on our level of obedience to his commandments, no matter how crappy things might be going at a particular juncture of our lives.
The exercising of our faith to TRUST in God that things will be good again after the hard times we're all going through right now is the wonderful light at the end of the tunnel that is guaranteed to be there IF WE ARE FAITHFUL.
We can talk ourselves into defeat or we can talk ourselves into victory - we are creatures of our thinking.
3/31/07 - Hit with a brick, leaving the dent there...
OK yes - He wants us to be happy. However - we don't know what, if anything that we're currently going through - is part of the plan or a bi-product of getting TO the plan KWIM?
....Understand, that I can't, not be what I am I'm not the milk, and Cheerios in your spoon ~ Avril Lavigne ~ ..."Nobody's Fool"...
OK yes - He wants us to be happy. However - we don't know what, if anything that we're currently going through - is part of the plan or a bi-product of getting TO the plan KWIM?
Yes you do. (not being argumentative, just being direct )
LIFE is the test. It happens. It is all part of the "plan." I think maybe we get stuck in that because we think God has mapped out our lives. Of course that's not the case. We live according to our abilities. We all have weaknesses. However, we're not being punished by God for doing things wrong when those weaknesses rear their ugly heads. We're being tested to see how we'll react to tough times. Will your faith wilt and die? Or will it be strengthened to new resolve to do better and make those weaknesses into strengths! Remember the parable of the talents? Do we live in fear and bury our talents, in essence retaining our weaknesses? Or do we exercise our faith to make our weaknesses into strengths?
So, as we progress in this life, we're more capable of overcoming grief, pain, and suffering and living the joy, happiness and peace that comes from relying on God at ALL times. Then, when it's time to look at our lives and make an accounting, we can see that the hard times did not cause us to fail, but led us to greater strength in the Lord!
I'm rambling, but the point is the way we deal with crisis and disappointment is the key. Seek happiness in doing God's will and the bad stuff can pass through and strengthen us instead of breaking us.
Good discussion UA, I like it. It makes the morning feel better. Thanks!
We can talk ourselves into defeat or we can talk ourselves into victory - we are creatures of our thinking.
3/31/07 - Hit with a brick, leaving the dent there...
This scrapbooking thing is turning out to be more painful than I even imagined.
I have been ankle deep in pictures and cards and letters that he wrote me in the first 5 years together. Funny though, I notice they declined sharply after we moved in the house in 2000. In 2004, during the height of my MLC, there are a couple more cards. Very sweet. He wrote letters via email at that time. Not many though, because I kept all of those, too. He wrote me a poem when I was in MLC and I found that.
But there is a 4-year period in which there was nothing.
In fact, this just makes me more determined because I have threads full of evidence in the last 6 months that that man still loves me. Not to mention 12 years worth of photos, cards and various other things I have saved that would surprise him (and freak out others!).
On our anniversary, July 21st, I'm giving the scrapbook to H. Ideally, we'll all sit together and look at it (okay, so the kids will get bored quick, but whatever). So I flipped the calendar tonight to see what day that falls on and it just so happens that July 21st is on a Friday this year.
