To forget yourself and get lost in a maze of helping and giving to others, is really a saved condition. Making a habit of blessing other people and looking out for their good instead of your own will starve out the selfishness that lies in our various areas of life.
Of course though, we need to be right with God ourselves, and He'll take care of guiding us in our relations to others. He wants us to make things right with Him AND with OTHER souls He is seeking to give a new life to. And Jesus said, "As ye have done it unto the least of these, my brethren, ye have done it unto Me."
From a song called, "Lord, How Long?" :
"Lord, how long can this go on, family life as it is?
Our love is waxing so cold. So much is going wrong.
We reach out our hands outside our homes,
Because we think our family's to blame.
And we forget our own faults, or just don't see them,
And then we wonder why we're still ashamed.
Lord, we need a change.
Help us come to right relation, make the wrong things right.
May we have a strong connection, turn our darkness into light...
If we're going to help the world, then it's YOU they must see.
We must live by Your example with our own family..."
These are some amazing things God has been showing me lately. And He's been showing me deep things ABOUT these things, which I see are very important for spiritual growth and improvement of life. I feel older after a few months of this amazing experience from God than I would if I were making $12 an hour and had my own house and new car and bills and all that stuff. :) God wants to show us how to prioritize, and to remember the important things. If we feel dis-satisfied about living where we are with those we're living with, etc., maybe God is trying to teach us things that are more eternal and best in the long run for us and for others(do we care? Only God can make us care.) And maybe that we ought to seek these things and be strong through the struggles and the deep heart-searching and painful "heart surgery", rather than by-passing our issues and blaming others as we mess up and run away from our troubles. (We would just find other troubles anyway. We really need to get to the ROOT of the problem.)
The struggles, heart-searching, surgery and ALL are more than worth it! The results are better than what our own mistakes, pride, and unwillingness to change, could bring us. ;)
"Lord, how long can I refuse to let go of the things that by Your grace I know
Are not the things that will be best down the road?
Lord, take it all, and no matter what others do, I still have light to live up to.
I can't cast on them all the blame, and just wait for them to change.
Lord, I must do my part for You.
It's Your will I must do. Lord, I trust You will lead me through."
He will, friend, He will. Whatever your personal issues are, if you listen to Him, trust and obey, He will show you answers. You can expect it to involve leaving your comfort zone. But sometimes, it's just a matter of letting go and being still, so that as your voice and crazy/confused/spinning-out-of-control mind were hushed -- stopped -- Jesus could tell you the truth of the matter.
Whatever the case is -- He really, sincerely, wants to help you.
"Help us put first things first, and to look in the mirror.
And instead of blaming others, the golden rule adhere."
Jesus said, "Do unto others even as you would that they should do unto you."
"The wrath of man worketh not the righteousness of God. Wherefore lay apart all filthiness and superfluity of naughtiness..." James 2:20,21. Can we admit it? Acknowledging our sin...it's like going through a dark tunnel for a minute, and then coming out to the other side, which in this case is a much better place to be than the side we came from. It brings us to this: We are in favor with God, simply because we chose Him, not our self, which makes us happy and at peace. Can we admit our true condition? Jeremiah 3:13,14: "Only acknowledge thine iniquity, that thou hast transgressed against the LORD thy God, and hast scattered thy ways to the strangers under every green tree, and ye have not obeyed My voice, saith the LORD. Turn, O backsliding children..."
Back to James: "Wherefore lay apart all superfluity of naughtiness, and receive with meekness [Let's sell our pride and exchange it for meekness, a treasure in that field.] the engrafted word, WHICH is able to save your souls. But be ye doers of the word, and not hearers only, deceiving you own selves."
Showing posts with label connection. Show all posts
Showing posts with label connection. Show all posts
Sunday, January 1, 2012
Monday, November 28, 2011
A Christian in the Home (Part 2) Definitely Something to Pray About
"To do good and to communicate forget not: for with such sacrifices God is well pleased." Hebrews 13:16.
As families, are we connected? Are we disfunctional, or in harmony? Do we communicate in a Christian way, or do we communicate selfishly? Do we communicate enough, about enough things? Do we spend enough quantity and quality time together? Do we know and want to know what's really going on with each other? And do we take interest in how each other are doing? Or do we stick with our own things, and then get annoyed when someone gets in the way of what we want to do? Do we really care about each other? Do we go out of our way to help someone else? When we are done with our work or in between jobs, do we ask our parent or sibling, "Hey, what else do you need to do? maybe I can do some of it..."? Do we ask our Savior often in the day, away and at home, "Jesus, what would you do?" There are many questions we could ask ourselves in this regard. Maybe the Lord will bring some to your mind now, or at other times in the future.
Do we have a tendency to not want our family's company, and to not enjoy being with them, neglecting to do good and communicate? Don't we want to live the verse in Hebrews 13, which says, "To do good and to communicate forget not: for with such sacrifices God is well pleased."? Now, I have to bring this out: the previous paragraph mentioned family mostly as opposed to individuals. But, do you (as I've been through) ever feel like your family members are the problem, and like you can't make all these good changes because of your family? Or maybe you feel like they are religious but deny the power, and you want nothing to do with being like them at all, so you turn completely to your own way? If so, that's just Satan trying to divide and conquer. One thing that may work on your parents, siblings, etc., but he uses a different attack on you. We ALL are in a warfare no-doubt, and it's up to us as individuals to choose whose side we're on, serving self and Satan, or serving God. We should not wait for our family to change. We should not serve self and choose not to be on Jesus' side just because others aren't doing what we think is right. We should have courage, strength, and zeal, no matter what our different family members are doing. Do we want to add to the dis-unity, or go ahead and dare to take a stand on Christ's side? Some things are more challenging to do as an individual, but Jesus said, "If any man will come after Me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross , and follow Me. For whosoever will save His life shall lose it: and whosoever will LOSE his life for My sake shall find it." Matthew 16:24-25.
Let's compare the following questions: "What am I doing in my home?" "What could I be doing?" "What am I not doing?" "What can I do in my home, with my individual family members, through Christ who strengthens me?" He says to us, "Freely ye have received, freely give." Matt.10:8. Really, have we been given great light, knowledge, wisdom and so on, freely and undeserved from our selfless Savior? And then selfishly not lived it and not given it to the dear souls we find in our own homes? Why can this be such a hard issue to deal with? Because of the selfishness we may have in it, and because one of the hardest struggles (or maybe the hardest struggle) is to die to self in each area of life, making sure it is totally crucified when it comes to everyday, practical life. I cannot deny that this is a big deal to me. It is vital that I take hold of it in Christ's strength, and one reason is this, "If a man say, I love God, and hateth his brother, he is a liar: for he that loveth not his brother whom he hath seen, how can he love God whom he hath not seen? And this commandment have we from Him, that he who loveth God love his brother also." And this, "Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself." 1 John 4:20-21, Matthew 19:19.
If we can be Christians with our families, we can be Christians anywhere. Do you believe that? I see that as really true. I personally think that since that is made possible by Him who loved us, then anything is possible! If we are not as much like Jesus as possible with our current families, what makes us think that we can all the sudden change and have it right in our future homes(if we have future homes) and mission work? That, partly, would be feelings, emotions, and vain imaginings, along with, perhaps, the desire to escape from our home, instead of focusing on God and letting Him teach us the little and big important things. That is not God's way; He has such great wisdom for us, and when we choose to take hold of it and walk in it, listening, trusting, and obeying, great things will happen. We will see ourselves changing, and with God-given faith, hope and most of all love, we will keep fighting the battle, and journey on.
If we did follow our feelings, emotions, and vain imaginings, that would be walking by our own blind sight. But we need to walk by faith. And, when we are walking by faith, we are actually walking by sight, but it's God's sight. We don't see everything when we walk by our own sight, but when we walk by faith, God shows us everything we need to see. That means we must trust Him. And when we do, He will bless us and work wonders in our hearts and lives. He will change our ways of thinking, making us to grow up to be responsible, unselfish, Christlike adults, with straightened-out priorities, mature thoughts and motives, good choices and high aspirations, and nobility. Don't we see that our feelings and emotions are as a roller coaster, and that there is only one safe way to go? The only safe path is to follow Jesus, our good example, our Savior that saves us from our sins, and wants to live out His life within us.
"So let us throw our burdens aside, and take our stand on Jesus' side.
The trees are swaying in the wind. It will be rough and cold, my friend,
But let our courage never fail; we will get through the rain and hail:
Jesus is with us to the end." *
*From a song called Through the Storm--
As families, are we connected? Are we disfunctional, or in harmony? Do we communicate in a Christian way, or do we communicate selfishly? Do we communicate enough, about enough things? Do we spend enough quantity and quality time together? Do we know and want to know what's really going on with each other? And do we take interest in how each other are doing? Or do we stick with our own things, and then get annoyed when someone gets in the way of what we want to do? Do we really care about each other? Do we go out of our way to help someone else? When we are done with our work or in between jobs, do we ask our parent or sibling, "Hey, what else do you need to do? maybe I can do some of it..."? Do we ask our Savior often in the day, away and at home, "Jesus, what would you do?" There are many questions we could ask ourselves in this regard. Maybe the Lord will bring some to your mind now, or at other times in the future.
Do we have a tendency to not want our family's company, and to not enjoy being with them, neglecting to do good and communicate? Don't we want to live the verse in Hebrews 13, which says, "To do good and to communicate forget not: for with such sacrifices God is well pleased."? Now, I have to bring this out: the previous paragraph mentioned family mostly as opposed to individuals. But, do you (as I've been through) ever feel like your family members are the problem, and like you can't make all these good changes because of your family? Or maybe you feel like they are religious but deny the power, and you want nothing to do with being like them at all, so you turn completely to your own way? If so, that's just Satan trying to divide and conquer. One thing that may work on your parents, siblings, etc., but he uses a different attack on you. We ALL are in a warfare no-doubt, and it's up to us as individuals to choose whose side we're on, serving self and Satan, or serving God. We should not wait for our family to change. We should not serve self and choose not to be on Jesus' side just because others aren't doing what we think is right. We should have courage, strength, and zeal, no matter what our different family members are doing. Do we want to add to the dis-unity, or go ahead and dare to take a stand on Christ's side? Some things are more challenging to do as an individual, but Jesus said, "If any man will come after Me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross , and follow Me. For whosoever will save His life shall lose it: and whosoever will LOSE his life for My sake shall find it." Matthew 16:24-25.
Let's compare the following questions: "What am I doing in my home?" "What could I be doing?" "What am I not doing?" "What can I do in my home, with my individual family members, through Christ who strengthens me?" He says to us, "Freely ye have received, freely give." Matt.10:8. Really, have we been given great light, knowledge, wisdom and so on, freely and undeserved from our selfless Savior? And then selfishly not lived it and not given it to the dear souls we find in our own homes? Why can this be such a hard issue to deal with? Because of the selfishness we may have in it, and because one of the hardest struggles (or maybe the hardest struggle) is to die to self in each area of life, making sure it is totally crucified when it comes to everyday, practical life. I cannot deny that this is a big deal to me. It is vital that I take hold of it in Christ's strength, and one reason is this, "If a man say, I love God, and hateth his brother, he is a liar: for he that loveth not his brother whom he hath seen, how can he love God whom he hath not seen? And this commandment have we from Him, that he who loveth God love his brother also." And this, "Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself." 1 John 4:20-21, Matthew 19:19.
If we can be Christians with our families, we can be Christians anywhere. Do you believe that? I see that as really true. I personally think that since that is made possible by Him who loved us, then anything is possible! If we are not as much like Jesus as possible with our current families, what makes us think that we can all the sudden change and have it right in our future homes(if we have future homes) and mission work? That, partly, would be feelings, emotions, and vain imaginings, along with, perhaps, the desire to escape from our home, instead of focusing on God and letting Him teach us the little and big important things. That is not God's way; He has such great wisdom for us, and when we choose to take hold of it and walk in it, listening, trusting, and obeying, great things will happen. We will see ourselves changing, and with God-given faith, hope and most of all love, we will keep fighting the battle, and journey on.
If we did follow our feelings, emotions, and vain imaginings, that would be walking by our own blind sight. But we need to walk by faith. And, when we are walking by faith, we are actually walking by sight, but it's God's sight. We don't see everything when we walk by our own sight, but when we walk by faith, God shows us everything we need to see. That means we must trust Him. And when we do, He will bless us and work wonders in our hearts and lives. He will change our ways of thinking, making us to grow up to be responsible, unselfish, Christlike adults, with straightened-out priorities, mature thoughts and motives, good choices and high aspirations, and nobility. Don't we see that our feelings and emotions are as a roller coaster, and that there is only one safe way to go? The only safe path is to follow Jesus, our good example, our Savior that saves us from our sins, and wants to live out His life within us.
"So let us throw our burdens aside, and take our stand on Jesus' side.
The trees are swaying in the wind. It will be rough and cold, my friend,
But let our courage never fail; we will get through the rain and hail:
Jesus is with us to the end." *
*From a song called Through the Storm--
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