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04 November Absolute TrustDefinitions:
Absolute
- Perfect in quality or nature; complete.
- Not limited by restrictions or exceptions; unconditional: absolute trust.
Trust
- To have or place reliance; depend: Trust in the Lord. Trust to destiny.
- To be confident; hope.
What does it mean to trust in the Lord?
How do I trust the Lord with my life...completely, absolutely?
These are questions that I find frequently emerging to the surface of my thought process. I want to be able to rely on God for every one of my needs and wants. Granted, I know that He will always meet all of my needs, however, He will only meet my wants that are in my best interests.
Right now, I am having a real hard time trusting in the Lord with certain aspects of my future. God has shown me that I am a bit of a control freak. I like to control: my money; my time; my work; conversations; and my relationships. Basically, I like to have it my way. I am praying about this daily. I am making great strides to change, through the power of Jesus.
God is so good. He has shown himself through the recent sickness of my horse, Blue. God has shown me what "absolute trust" in Him is, and how it is to be applied to my life. I wanted to not only blog about this so that I would remember it, but I also wanted to share the lesson I learned with each one of you.
Last week, while feeding my boys, Blue started coughing and could not stop. I noticed that there was something draining out of his nostrils and mouth. At first, I thought, he is just choking on his food. For those of you who do not know, horses cannot vomit. It is kinda scary when they choke, but he had done this before, so I was not that frightened...this time!
I left all of them up in the stalls overnight, and the next morning when I went to let them out into the pasture, Blue was still coughing and gaging. At this point, I noticed that it was mucus draining from his nostrils and mouth...GROSS! He had not eaten his feed, nor did he eat the hay I had thrown in the stall overnight. I let the other two horses out, but went in and drew up two needles of penicilin to give to Blue. This went on for about three days; I gave him two needles in the morning and two at night. My poor boy was very sick. He refused all food and water. I was so scared that I cried out to God for his healing and for me to trust in Him for the healing of Blue.
On the second night of his illness, I arrived late at night to give him his evening dose of penicilin. When I approached the stall, I noticed that he was lying down. Now, horses only lie down when they feel safe, secure. They are very vulnerable when lying down. So, naturally by instinct, they stand when they feel threatened or are not comfortable with their surroundings. As I approached him, he just looked at me with eyes that showed how much pain he was in. He did not get up; he did not move, rather he rested his head in my arms as I sat with him. I talked softly in his ears and rub him gently on his head and neck. I could see and feel him relaxing as he laid there. He was so relaxed that I did not want to make him get up so that I could give him his needles. Instead, I pulled out those needles, and, after thumping on his neck a couple times (helps to numb the area before inserting the needle), I stuck him with the first needle. Now, I was worried that he would jump up after feeling the prick, but, nope, he just sat there...he did not even flinch! So, I proceeded to inject him with the second dose...same reaction. Afterwards, I sat with him for a while before going into the house. I was amazed at how much this creature truly trusted me. I could tell that Blue knew I was only there to help him not to hurt him.
Upon reflection of Blue's display of absolute trust in me, God spoke to my heart. This is what God showed me: That no matter what is going on in my life He is always there, helping me...loving me. That even when I am feeling my worst, and it seems as if life is taking one stab after another at me, those stabs are only for my good...to make me better...to make me well...to build my endurance...to build my character. That I need to act towards my Heavenly Father the same way Blue acted towards me--to lay in His arms, relaxed and ready to endure what comes my way, having absolute trust in Him that I will be brought through that time of pain and sickness to be made well once again. The only difference being, I will have grown in knowledge, endurance, patience, wisdom, and, most importantly, faith!
The LORD says in Jeremiah 17:5, "Cursed is the one that trusts in man, who depends on flesh for his strength and whose heart turns away from the LORD."
The LORD also says in Jeremiah 17:7, "But blessed is the man who trusts in the LORD, whose confidence is in Him."
I cannot trust in any one person, including myself, for anything in life! It is all God's plan...my life is His...He created me to glorify Him! I must trust that He shall deliver me from, or through, each obstacle I encounter here on earth until the glorious day that Christ returns. Then, He shall lift me, the person whose character He has been molding, to reside in close proximity with Him and to worship Him for all of eternity!
Praise God for He is so good to each one of us! 22 August Avoid Being A Worry WartI have procrastinated, as far as posting this piece goes. I apologize for the delay, however the whole illness thing did not help. Now, enough of my excuses, let's get to the issue at hand.
I am going to quote scripture from Matthew 6:25-34, which is more than fitting of this subject:
"Therefore I tell you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat or drink; or about your body, what you will wear. Is not life more important than food, and the body more important than clothes? Look at the birds of the air; they do not sow or reap or store away in barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not much more valuable than they? Who of you by worrying can add a single hour to his life?
"And why do you worry about clothes? See how the lilies of the field grow. They do not labor or spin. Yet I tell you that not even Solomon in all his splendor was dressed like one of these. If that is how God clothes the grass of the field, which is here today and tomorrow is thrown into the fire, will he not much more clothe you, O you of little faith? So do not worry, saying, 'What shall we eat?' or 'What shall we drink?' or 'What shall we wear?' For the pagans run after all these things, and your heavenly Father knows that you need them. But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well. Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own. (In red symbolizing that these are actual words that Jesus spoke)
Currently I am sitting at a cross road in my life, and I have two choices. I could either a) continue traveling down Familiar Street, or b) make a right onto Peculiar Highway. Now, I have been traveling down this same old Familiar Street for the last 25 years and the scenery has always been the same. No longer do I look to the right and to the left for new and exciting changes, rather I keep my eyes fixated on the road ahead. Familiar Street has become a rather comfortable street to travel; the speed always stays the same; the same people wave to me at the same spot everyday; there is a since of security knowing that I always know exactly where I am; and I even know the police officer that patrols this street! Why on earth would I want to make a right off of this street?
Honestly, I don't want to make a turn, not at all. However, for some reason today is different. Today, I actually looked at the signed titled "Peculiar Highway" and wondered what it would be like to venture on down into the unknown. Now mind you, I have never EVER turned off of Familiar Street. Everyday that I approached this intersection I just waited for the coast to be clear then I sped on, straight ahead. But, today, I sit idly lost in thought wondering, thinking, "what if?"
Life presents these moments of choice quite frequently in our everyday lives. We could either choose to maintain our course, straight down Familiar Street - which is symbolic of doing our will for our life - or we could make that right onto Peculiar Highway - which is symbolic of doing God's will for our life- and change not only how we live our life but how we view our life as well.
When the opportunity arises for us to make a change and follow God, and we actually accept the challenge placed before us, we are almost always plunged into one of the most common acts of sin - worry. Almost immediately after making the right onto Peculiar Highway, we start to doubt why we turned in the first place. Oh no, the speed has changed, now I have to adjust my cruise control! Oh no, I have no idea where I am headed, I don't have a map! Oh no, I am all alone, there is no one around that I know! This is an automatic reaction of our human nature.
But Jesus asks us in verse 27, "Who of you by worrying can add a single hour to his life?" That my friends is a very good question to ask yourself when you are caught up on the merry-go-round of worry. If we think about it, we can't add a single hour, minute, or even second to our life by worrying. Actually, the time we spend worrying is lost, gone, wasted, and quite truthfully unproductively used.
In times such as these we need to find our focus. Well, first of all, in order to recognize where our focus needs to be we need to recognize what the most important thing in our life is. Once we know what is imperative in life then we know exactly what to focus on. For me, my focus is God and His will for my life, because I have found that my life is meaningless without a purpose, and I was created by God to fulfill His purpose for my life here on earth. So, what should I do when I start worrying about which way I should go; how I am going to get there; where the money is going to come from to support this; and quite frankly why in the world I am doing it to begin with? I should pull out my Bible and read, I should listen attentively Sunday morning at service, I should take into consideration what people have to say to me, I should be more aware of the circumstances that are happening around me. All-in-all, by doing these things, I will be seeking God's face, and that is where my focus should be. Instead of worrying about who, what, when, where, how, and why, I should be looking to God asking for the eyes to see who, what, when, where, how, and why, and then for the strenghth and endurance to see it through.
My friends, I have realized something amazing along my walk with Christ, and, that is, the life that God has planned for you is more exciting, adventurous, and fulfilling than you can EVER imagine. Everytime I think I have something figured out, guess what, I am wrong and what comes my way is so much better than what I had imagined. Basically, what I am saying is that there is no way for our feeble little minds to fathom what was destined for us. We just have to take that step, in faith, and work towards it. Yes, we may be walking blindly so to speak, but our God will be right beside us leading us, we just have to trust Him. We cannot sit around worrying all the time about whether or not to make a turn, a change. We need to have our focus on what is important, and make that right onto Peculiar Highway!
To sum it all up, Jesus says it best, "Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own." 09 August It's Not FairI announce that I am a "Christian", so, therefore, I need to watch all of my steps very carefully. It is not fair in a sense, because we are all sinners and I am going to screw up, but the non-believer does not understand that. Example: One of my family members who is not a Christian and who has not devoted his/her life to Christ, but whom I love very much, will make comments such as this, "That is not a very Christian thing to do." This comment may be in response to me saying some like, "Get out of my way you slow poke," (in a more than slightly irritated voice) to a car in front of me while driving. Even though he/she drinks, smokes, curses, etc., he/she still brings me out on any one little thing I do. This is not to say that his/her comments do not snap me into shape, but, Sheesh! It is just not fair!
This so reminds me of the song by Relient K "Getting Into You"; the part that says:
"When I made up my mind
And my heart along with that To live not for myself But yet for God, somebody said Do you know what you are getting yourself into" So often taking on the name of a Christian, and actually wanting to devote your life to Christ, becomes your biggest challenge. You stop and think, "Why am I doing this? It would be so much easier to just go with the flow of the world". At this moment I remember another verse from the same song: God loves me (and you!). How can we go wrong when we are getting into love? Like I have been saying, "In order to receive anything good and of value, there must first be a sacrifice." In order to receive the unfailing, undenying, eternal love of God, we must first make a sacrifice. I now realize that I need to sacrifice my mind, body, and soul to God in order to avoid the temptation to sin. In the end I know all my sacrifice will be more than worth it! 02 August Foundation For Your LifeIn all things that remain there must be a solid foundation. When we build a house what must first be laid? Right, a foundation. We cannot put up the shell of the house or fill it with furnishings of any sort until we first put down a structure that will be able to hold all of those things, otherwise, it will all come crashing down.
Now, like a house we also need a foundation in our lives. We need something that no matter what happens, we can always rely on it -the foundation - to keep our lives from crashing down. This is something I came to realize, and, because I recognized that necessity for my life, I started looking for that foundation.
For 23 years my life was a rollercoaster of emotions. I wanted to die at so many points in my life. I hated my life with a passion. My parents hated one another and abused each other mentally, emotionally, and physically. The abuse also came out on us kids. I learned how to handle everything in the wrong way. I could go into detail, but I think you get the point. I found Jesus in October of 2003. I started growing in Him and I knew deep down within me that with Him lies the foundation for my life. The foundation, which I had built by myself, was made of putty. This foundation of putty would sway one way or the other whenever the weather became tempestuous. I wanted a solid foundation where my emotions would always be stable no matter what kind of day I was having. Now folks, I did not mean have NO emotions, but rather the comfort and stability to control my emotions so they did not fly overboard. After finding Jesus, I knew that the foundation I was looking for could be found in Him.
God lead me to a passage that would undeniably change my life. The answer to building my firm and stable, rock foundation was found in Romans 12:1-2 which states (I am underlining what I found to be key points):
What I received from this, if applied to my life everyday, would build me up to be strong and give me the endurance needed to withstand and reject the temptations that arise in daily living.
It says in verse 1 "to offer your bodies as living sacrifices, holy and pleasing to God". Here is the definition of sacrifice: the act of losing or surrendering something as a penalty for a mistake or fault or failure to perform. I am a sinner and always will be while here on earth, therefore, I have many mistakes, faults, and failures. What verse 1 means to me is that I need to treat my body like a temple. If I have Jesus living within me then my body, ultimately, is God's temple. So, should I drown it with alcohol? Should I smother it with smoke? Should I be gluttonous and fill it full of unnessesary food? Should I continue to have pre-marital intercourse? Should I continue putting the things into my body that is pleasing to me but not to God? I think not! My body needs to be a sacrifice unto the Lord.
"Do not conform any longer to the pattern of this world", well what does that mean? I found many things that fall into this category. You know those people that always say, "this is how it has always been done." How does that make you feel when they say that? It makes me want to scream. I see a better way of doing something but those people will have no parts of my idea because they like the way it is done now. Such as getting married without pre-marriage counseling (getting to know the other person's ideas and goals to see if you are compatible, and for other reasons of course) then finding out a couple years later that it is not going to work and getting divorced. Do I want to do that? I think not! I want a life commitment with another person. I know that being married is a decision you make. I do not want to conform to the ways of this world and just pick someone that speaks to me in a physical manner only for me to lose interest in a couple of years because emotionally we are not on the same level. Also, clothing. Do I need to shop at all the name brand stores to show that I am something special? I think not! Now, don't get me wrong, I love Lerner New York, but, I should also be able to shop at Wal-Mart and enjoy it just as much (and not be ashamed). There are so many other examples, can you think of just one other?
Then in verse 2 it says that in order not to be conformed to the ways of this world we should be transformed by the renewing of our minds. Well, I get that I should remain in the Word; that my ultimate focus should be on God; to be reflecting on my life daily to see what is working positively and what is working negatively; and to be teaching my inner being how to live with more happiness, love, kindness, and joy. The way to do this lies with the living Word. By reading it and actually applying it to my life I will be renewing my mind to think more like Christ and the end result will be joy; peace; enduring everlasting love; kindness; better friendships; comfort; and contentment.
Now, as I am growing in the above areas, I will be better equipped to "test and approve what God's will is" for my life. I should now be able to set goals that are pleasing to God, and, if it is His will for my life, it shall be done. The more I learn of God and how He thinks the more capable I will be to allow the Spirit to lead my life in a more productive manner. This leading of the Spirit will direct me to God's perfect will for my life which is my ultimate goal - to be doing His will.
Again, this is just what I got out of the passage quoted above. If you have any comments, please leave them. I could have went into much more detail with what I have learned, however, in order not to lose the attention of my readers, I shall stop here.
God Bless all and thank you for reading. 23 July BalanceHow do we live a joyful, happy, fulfilling life?
In all things there must be balance. I shall start with what the bible has to say about this:
Ecclesiastes 3A Time for Everything 1 There is a time for everything,and a season for every activity under heaven: 2 a time to be born and a time to die, 3 a time to kill and a time to heal, 4 a time to weep and a time to laugh, 5 a time to scatter stones and a time to gather them, 6 a time to search and a time to give up, 7 a time to tear and a time to mend, 8 a time to love and a time to hate, 9 What does the worker gain from his toil? 10 I have seen the burden God has laid on men. 11 He has made everything beautiful in its time. He has also set eternity in the hearts of men; yet they cannot fathom what God has done from beginning to end. 12 I know that there is nothing better for men than to be happy and do good while they live. 13 That everyone may eat and drink, and find satisfaction in all his toil—this is the gift of God.
What really interests me is verse 8, "a time to love and a time to hate...". We read in the bible that God wants us to love everyone, however, here it says that there is a time to love and a time to hate. Now, I do not believe that this reference to hate means to actually hate a person; rather, I think that it is referring to sin and the act of commiting sin. But, regardless, the Bible does tell us that there is a time to hate. Getting back to the question at hand, "How do we live a joyful, happy, fulfilling life?", well, basically, we need to find a happy medium in all areas, aspects of our lives. One of the areas we as humans really struggle is uncontrollable circumstances. We do not know why our world is crashing down; we lost a loved one; our friend betrayed us; we were laid off from our job; everytime we sit down to relax the phone rings (notice the change in the severity of the circumstance); or no matter what we do it just does not seem like it is right. We all have these days. There are different levels or severness to the "uncontrollable circumstances". Do you want to know why we have "bad days"? We choose to have them. We choose how we are going to feel/react in every situation. We have the choice whether or not to be negative or positive. For instance- let me use a struggle of mine- there is this woman at work, I shall call her Jane, who totally irritates me to no end. She, in my opinion, asks ridiculous questions and does not use good common sense. Now, every time Jane does something that irritates me I could a) allow that to fester within me then run around to other co-workers and complain to the point that not only am I being/feeling negative so are my co-workers; or b) I can calmly explain directly to Jane how I feel (with loving words mind you) and try to encourage her to do things differently next time. Which option do you think would be the best? Which option would you normally choose? Why don't you play that scenario -the one you just thought of with regard to something/someone in your own life-over in your head using option "b" this time. How could the outcome have been different? How would your emotions/feelings have been different using option "b"? Are you getting my point? So, we have come to the conclusion that we are able to choose the way we react, and in turn choose the way we feel. By making the proper choices in all areas of our lives we will live a nice balanced life, however, that will never happen folks. This is where our spiritual life comes into play. We should have balance between our secular life and our spiritual life. We will never be able to make all of the right decisions in our lives, besides if we did we would never learn any-what I like to call-"life lessons". Since we will never make all of the right decisions that means that we are sinning, right? So, if we sin what do we need to do to make it right? Repent, which means to ask for forgiveness then turn from that sin and do everything in your power to refrain from commiting it again. So our secular self messes up and our relationship with our heavenly Father fixes it....that is balance believe it or not. Now of course in order to do this we must have a relationship with God which is only accomplished through Jesus. Jesus says in John 14:6, "no one comes to the Father except through me." (If anyone has any questions about this please feel free to comment and I will get in touch with you.) If we have balance between our secular and spiritual self then we will be able to experience one of the many gifts of God as stated in verse 13 above, "That everyone may eat and drink, and find satisfaction in all his toil-this is the gift of God." There is one more thing I would like to point out with regard to the passage above and that is verse 11, "He has made everything beautiful in its time." It is imperative that we remain patient with ourselves, others, and circumstances (of all kinds). There is a time for everything; we cannot rush any good thing nor delay any bad thing. It is all happening for a reason. The trick is, we each need to be stable enough mentally, physically, emotionally, and above all spiritually in order to implement option "b" in as many circumstances as feasibly possible, which are a direct result of, what we all call, "life". Now, I challenge each of you to meditate on the word, balance, and discover where in your life it exists and where it needs to be established. If anyone needs encouragement along the way, feel free to leave a comment saying so and I would be more than happy to be a voice of positive encouragement for you during that time!
18 July Definition of FriendAlright folks, feel free to add anything you want!
This is MY definition of what a friend is...
Now, I guess this imposed a question upon me...."Am I a friend?". Do I do these things? How in the world can I have a true friend if I am not willing to do the above and become the friend I wish to have?
13 July SelfishnessI, in my selfish act, wrote an email to a dear friend in which I was ultimately just seeking a response of some sort. However, in my rage and rising anger I spoke words that pierced the heart like a dagger.
I was battling inner turmoil due to the near departure of my Brother, who is in the army and shall be returning to Iraq for 15 months. I contacted my dear friend for support, strength, and courage for the dreaded next day, the day that I would assist in delivering my brother to a shuttle that would ship him back over seas to an area far from the United States and what I like to call "home". An answer came on the other end and I was relieved to hear the voice that I had not been blessed with for days prior to this one. I was dismayed to hear "Let me call you back a little later". I, in my mildly lamenting voice, stated that would be fine. The night came and went and no call was received by me. There was no conversation for 5 days and on that fifth day I had stewed long enough. I was so caught up in my emotions that I was not thinking or worrying about how my friend might be doing.
Well, you know the saying "you shall reap what you sow". That is right, I guess in a way I got what I deserved. My actions were totally uncalled for. I manipulated scripture in my email and I was extremely judgemental as far as their walk with Christ was concerned. My friend expressed how dissapointed they are with me and my words, and stated to me that the friendship we share at this time is unhealthy. So, the ties of communication have been broken, for the time being. I feel worse than a hen sitting in that incommodious cage on her way to the pit of boiling water.
This brings me to a question I asked myself this evening, "What is Selfishness?". This is what I came up with:
SELFISHNESS COMES FROM THAT WHICH IS EVIL!
So now, I must allow God to pick me up; brush me off; place me firm on my feet; and direct my eyes to see the blessing and lesson that is to come from this incident. Otherwise, I will wallow in my self-made pit of penitence and learn absolutely nothing from this experience! |
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