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May. 30, 2007
I need an attitude adjustment...
I have been reading James this month. James, for those of you who have never read through it, is a very convicting and thought-provoking book. Here is just one tiny section:
"Consider it a sheer gift, friends, when tests and challenges come at you from all sides. You know that under pressure, your faith-life is forced out into the open and shows its true colors. So don't try to get out of anything prematurely. Let it do its work so you become mature and well-developed, not deficient in any way."
OK, that sounds wonderful. But, can I be candidly honest for a moment? It is no secret if you have read this blog that we have been facing great financial struggles for a LONG time now. (12+, nearly 13 years!). I have to tell you that I do NOT consider it a sheer gift to be struggling. It is true that under pressure, my faith-life is forced out into the open and shows its true colors. But, guess what? In my case, that is not so great, because what I see when its true colors are out in the open is just... well, just gray, I guess... a not so clever way of stating that, in fact, my faith-life stinks. As for trying to get out of something prematurely, well, from where I sit it feels like we have been going through this for so long it could not POSSIBLY be prematurely we would be getting out of it even if a winning lottery ticket were dropped in our mailbox today miraculously and the debt was all paid in one fell swoop!
So, now, are you impressed with me?
Yes, James is a very convicting book. I am taking a hard look at my faith and trust in God, and I am not liking what I see. Just a few verses after the passage I quoted above, it says that "people who 'worry their prayers' are like wind-whipped waves..." And I am a WORRIER.
I need an attitude adjustment. Specifically, I need to choose to have faith. I need to trust the Lord, I need to stop worrying and move forward in faith. I need to have a positive, faith-filled attitude rather that the doom and gloom one I am allowing myself to have currently.
Please pray with me that I will grow in faith and trust the Lord, and that He would show me in very real, practical ways that He is taking care of all this!
I am going to find some thoughts, verses, quotes, etc. that encourage me and post them for myself to read here . If you happen to read this and have something to leave for me, I would really treasure it!
Thanking GOD that...
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May. 30, 2007 - Untitled Comment
When I think about waiting for something or the length of suffering I think of the woman who bled for many years before finally being cured by touching Jesus' robe, or the Israelites who spent 40 years in the desert. Yes, they were being "punished" but Joshua and the others who had not sinned had to wait with them. Job suffered long before seeing his fates restored. The people possessed by demons for years before being rescued by Christ...
Our timing certainly isn't God's. Bear in mind also, that He does not always answer our prayers as we'd expect. I might like for an ailment to be cured or a trial to come to an end, but it may not in this lifetime. That may not be God's will for me. At some point we have to accept that ours may be a life with distress. I think it was Paul who mentions that many times he prayed that God would take a thorn from his side only to receive the answer that for His own reasons God would not.
It is hard to let go of what we want and accept that God may have placed us on a hard path in this life. But once you achieve acceptance, the path does not seem quite as rough.
May you find peace in every circumstance.