Life's Not Fair

How many times have you said IT’S NOT FAIR!! 

You look at your life and think “it’s not supposed to be this way”. Maybe something you didn’t want came into your life and messed it all up…a bad report card, accused of something you didn’t do, punished a little more harshly than you think you should be. 

Well you are certainly not the only one that feels that way.  We all feel that way sometimes.  It happens a lot actually. 

You’ve heard the old saying “Life’s not fair!” 

Well there is a lot of stuff in life that seems “unfair”. Like when you need a friend more than anything in the world and they just aren’t there for you when you need them, when that person you thought you knew inside and out turns out not to be who you thought they were or when your girlfriend/boyfriend breaks up with you. 

We put expectations on other people and find ourselves disappointed.  When life throws us these curve balls we can’t seem to find the logic in it all.  Life and love collide and we rack our brains to figure out reasons for what has happened or why people have done what they have done but we end up even more confused. 

2 Corinthians 1:3-7 tells us that God is the comforter of us all.

“Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of mercies and God of all comfort, who comforts us in all our affliction so that we will be able to comfort those who are in any affliction with the comfort with which we ourselves are comforted by God.  For just as the sufferings of Christ are ours in abundance, so also our comfort is abundant through Christ.  But if we are afflicted, it is for your comfort and salvation or if we are comforted, it is for your comfort, which is effective in the patient enduring of the same sufferings which we also suffer; and our hope for you is firmly grounded, knowing that as you are sharers of our sufferings, so also you are sharers of our comfort.”

So do you think life was fair to Jesus? 

Do you think he was ever disappointed in the people he put expectations on?

Jesus faced these same trials and was disappointed by people too.  Human life was not fair to him either and stuff didn’t always make sense to him either.  But Jesus, being the great comforter he was, always had a passion for comforting people even during unmet expectations, when things didn’t make sense, and when people were disappointing…evenup until his death.

Although Jesus does not promise that things will be perfect, he does tell us over and over again in the bible to lay our burdens down on him.

In Matthew 11:25 Jesus tells us “Come to me, all who are weary and heavy laden, and I will give yourest.”  

He doesn’t sayothers will always live up to our expectations…

He never promises it will all make sense…he just asks that you leave it all to him.

For it is in these moments…in these disappointments, these times of confusion that we find him. It is in these moments that we connect and find comfort.

These are the times that he uses for us to come to our knees and look up to him.

“Cast your burden on the Lord,  and he shall sustain you” – Psalms 55:22

On our own, we will spend hours dissecting thesituation, trying to figure out everything. We wait until everything is perfect and it all makes sense, not realizing that we have missed out on it all together.  If we wait till Love is perfect, Life is perfect, everything is perfect we never find what we are looking for and we miss out on the true meaning of why Jesus went to that cross for us in the first place.

 

According to Romans 8:28, Jesus wants us to love Life, others and him “And we know that all things work together for good to them that loves God, to them who are called according to his purpose.”

Love Life

Love Others
Love Him
That is the True Meaning of Life.

References:

www.godlywoman.com
http://EzineArticles.com/49625

I Got This

“I got this”

Song: TobyMac “Me without You”

Read Matt 6:33-34

How many times have we’ve said “I’ve got this”?, How many times have we heard a friend or parent say that? What’s your first instinct…like most of us we think..what?, wait, I’ve got to watch this. Cause usually it will be either epic success or epic fail..but it’s usually a show..lol. Think about this…if you know that person was doing it wrong would you stop them? Or would you let them fail & say “I told you so”, so.. you think I just taught them a lesson right?...is that the Christian thing?

There’s always the explanation when plans/action go wrong “it seemed like a good idea at the time”…but it’s usually not. When we take matters into our own hands, we substitute another plan for God’s plan. Clearly, any plan opposed to God’s will fail sooner or later.

Our human nature is that we like to test people, like our parents and even God, rather than trust them. We want to “skate on thin ice” rather than rely on your parents or God for advice. So what is your faith worth if you don’t trust God completely? It’s normal to trust in your own understand, but what if you don’t know the answer? My walk of faith means I will trust the bible, its teachings, and direction. It’s perfectly normal to say “I don’t know” or “I need help”. Ask advice from your fellow Christians.

Advice can be found anywhere and if you look hard enough, you can find someone who will tell you whatever you want to hear. God’s Word, however, is the truth, and it stands the test of time. Example of Bad Advice: Adam & Eve, Eve on Satan’s advice (Gen 3:1-6)

So what?  How does this apply to you?  Right now you may or may not be weighting a tough decision in your life, however, there will be many situations in life where God wants us to wait on his perfect timing. We might not know when or where, but we need to trust his will.
Example Read (Heb 11:6)

Let me ask you this, if you’re in a car with a foggy window or in bathroom with a steamed up mirror…how many wipes does it take to before the window/mirror is before its clear?....If we keep saying “I got this” and not trusting God’s plan, he will continue to let us fall on our face…he’s teaching you a lesson that sooner or later you will have to look up. Proof of God’s Will…Creation & Life (Genesis), Moses (Ex 2:11-15) , Noah (Gen 7-9)

I know waiting on God is hard, but it’s an important and necessary part of this faith journey…we have plenty of examples of what happens when we say…”I got this”, so next time you say “I got this” you should think hard and pray for God’s wisdom, perfect timing and invite him to show you the blessing and benefits of waiting..

Closing Prayer: Dear God, we want to follow you. We will turn from sin and place our trust in you alone and ask for your forgiveness. Right now, we receive your gift of eternal life and confess you as Lord. Thank you for loving us and dying on the cross for us. Thanks you for giving us new life, in Jesus’ name, Amen.

Anger Management

Do you get angry?
Is it okay to get angry?
Many think it's not very Christian to get angry and if you want to be a Christian you should never get angry.  They think... I can never be a Christian if I feel anger.  The truth is anger itself is neither right nor wrong.  It's "amoral" (meaning it doesn't have a sense of morals).  It's actually what you do with the anger and how you handle it that matters.

Ephesians 4:26 says
"Be angry, and yet do not sin; do not let the sun go down on your anger."

So even the bible says its okay to be angry...but do not sin.

So where does anger come from?
What is it's purpose?

It may not be the answer you are thinking.

Since the purpose of anger is to fight evil and right wrongs, anger is actually a God given emotion.  We are meant to use our anger in God given ways.  Since rage, hostility and bitterness is of Satan. we are to stay clear of that path.  We have to speak the truth in love and own our feelings.  Never hostilely tell someone they made you angry.  No one can make you angry without your permission.  So how do you handle the situation?  Let them know you understand that  your feelings are your responsibility but you feel angry and would like to talk about it.

A lot of times when there is anger from the past that you haven't addressed it can get triggered easily and you can over react.  Just remember what they do to you is their issue but how you react is your Christian responsibility.

So is it worth getting angry about?

Think about a few things the next time you feel anger coming on...
- Is it worth getting angry for?
- Will I regret for what I'm about to say or do later?
- How will this effect my relationship?

A lot of the things that get us angry are really just things that waste time, annoy us or threaten our egos.  These things will never stop.  God wants us to practice patience to learn how to handle them.

Psalms 37:7 tells us
"Be sill before the Lord and wait patiently for him: do not fret when men succeed in their ways, when they carry out their wicked schemes.


Righteous Anger
Even Jesus got angry.  When Jesus got angry at the moneychangers in the temple it was because they were exploiting religion instead of using it to bring people closer to God. Jesus taught the truth but they refused to listen.
We can also get angry at injustice, such as killing the unborn, drugs dealings, molesting children, polluting our environment and so on.  Rather than stewing about the problems, we can band together with others and take action to fight, by peaceful, lawful means. We can volunteer and donate to organizations that oppose abuse. We can write our elected officials. We can form a neighborhood watch. We can educate others, and we can pray.

In Matthew 10:16, Jesus told his followers to be as "shrewd as snakes and as innocent as doves."  We are to protect ourselves without stooping to the level of our attackers.  An angry outburst accomplishes little, besides satisfying our emotions.

Jesus told us to expect persecution. The nature of today's world is that someone is always trying to take advantage of us. If we are shrewd yet innocent, we will not be as shocked when it happens and will be better prepared to deal with it calmly.  *consider your audience*Getting angry is a natural human emotion that does not have to lead into sin—if we remember that God is a God of justice and we use our anger in a way that honors him.

Sources: About.com, Christianstories.com

Enticement of Sinners

Enticement of Sinners or Peer Pressure

Proverbs 1:8-19 (theme 10-16) (read)Define Sheol (SHEE-ohl) Hebrew word-translation “grave” or ”pit”; in the bible the Hebrew word meant “underworld”. In 200 BC the Greek translated the scriptures and replaced “Sheol” with “Hades”.

Think about that only 1 of 10 ppl do the Christian thing each and every time. Majority of the time peers give us advice that’s opposite of what our parents/step-parents instruct us to do. You must decide to be the Christian (1 out 10) or to run with the crowd when you know it’s wrong (90%). Easier said than done right? So think about it, if someone/friend or not ask you to compromise something that you believe in…they are probably not that Christian friend you need to be around. The key to peer pressure is to determine your standards and boundaries (Personal/Spiritual) before a situation arises, it’s difficult to make the right choice in the heat of the moment.

Personal boundariesPersonal boundaries are guidelines, rules or limits that a person creates to identify what are reasonable, safe and permissible ways for other people to behave around them and how they will respond when someone steps outside those limits. They are built out of a mix of beliefs, opinions, attitudes, past experiences and social learning. Personal boundaries define you as an individual, outlining your likes and dislikes, and setting the distances you allow others to approach. They include physical, mental, psychological and spiritual boundaries, involving beliefs, emotions, intuitions and self-esteem.

Spiritual BoundariesThe most important boundary you can protect is your spiritual boundaries. There are a number of spiritual boundaries that are key to keeping yourself sane in this world. We have all heard the comment or we have all said something and waited for that lightning bolt to strike us. While this will most likely not happen as a result of some spiritual punishment, the fear has been duly placed in our mind. As a result, we need to define our Spiritual Boundaries.

1.Inner Spiritual Boundaries:

1. Core Values

2. Central Belief System

3. Fundamental Spiritual Structure

Each of these (3) areas can get you into trouble spiritually if you’re not careful.  Inner Spiritual Boundaries are where we start. We have to be careful not to ignore or force our beliefs on ppl before they ready.  Most people have never defined their core values and so have difficulty understanding why they are conflicted or have chaos in their lives. This is true in life or more specifically in the spiritual lives. As we define who we are we must also define each area of our life to understand who we are and the boundaries we want to set for ourselves. It all begins with our core values.

These core values create who we are and what we do on a daily basis. Our true identity is built by what we decide we are going to believe in over a lifetime. These central beliefs shape our choices in jobs, fun and even our mate. It is a fundamental key to our central belief system. Those thoughts that get us in trouble or celebrate the life we lead. The good and bad we have done are developed in our mind by that belief system.

The key to unlocking these beliefs lie in the Fundamental Spiritual Structure. This is the structure that we are growing up with and “learning” to believe in and act upon. Actions over time develop habit and belief in a certain structure. That structure creates the boundaries that protect us and creates walls that are hard to penetrate.

2. External Spiritual Boundaries:

1. Bad Influence

2. Bad Habits

3. Non-Self-Convicted opinion

External Spiritual Boundaries are the ones that we must understand and are affected by until we understand the Inner Spiritual Boundaries. The external barriers are more easily seen and kept under control because they are visible to everyone. We HAVE to make a conscious effort to fit in to the crowd or make a special effort to NOT fit in based on those external boundaries. As young ppl you are taught to NOT hang around bad people or bad influences. However, as we age those boundaries become less restrictive and we need to establish these for ourselves. The creation of these protections becomes less guided by authority and more by our convictions. The external influences of the internet, media, Hollywood and our circle of friends/influence are key to what we allow into our conscious and subconscious minds. They can influence us in small or large ways. As much as nutrition affects our physical health, this onslaught of material that we allow our senses to come in contact with directly and indirectly affect our fundamental structures mentally. As these structures are affected, we in turn create either good or bad habits. These new structures we allow to be created mold our action set. Bad habits can be formed from this external attack or our moral fiber. Forcibly (or consciously) creating those habits that will remain congruent to our core values is critical to maintaining inner-peace and combating the chaos created by NOT doing battle correctly.

Loss of BoundariesThe loss of conscious boundaries could occur when an individual was caught up in a fast-moving crowd.  Our identities become controlled by the definitions offered by others.

What are the effects of crossing these barriers or letting them slide?The end result of not maintaining proper boundaries is the existence of continual chaos. This chaos take over our lives given free reign and it takes monumental effort to return to where we left the road/path of God.

Rebuilding boundariesWhile a healthy relationship depends on the emotional space provided by personal boundaries, co-dependent personalities have difficulties in setting such limits, so that defining and protecting boundaries efficiently may be for them a vital part of regaining mental health and Spiritual Health .

Family therapists and reading your bible can help family members to develop clearer boundaries, by behaving in a well-defined way when treating them, drawing lines, and treating different generations in different compartments- something especially suitable families where unhealthy involvement overrides normal personal boundaries.

However, Be careful the establishment of personal boundaries in such instances may produce a negative fall-out, if the relationship is there everything.

What can you do to protect yourselves from these different distractions both inner and external?

1. The key is to protect them from the outset and not let you travel too far down any wrong path.

2. Spaced repetition with the good information that you wish to put into your mind, read your Bible as often as possible.

3. Daily meditation/prayer and focus on the path that you want to travel.

4. Careful consideration of those whom you choose to associate with.

These steps will create the spiritual freedom that you want and the separation from the troublesome part of your spiritual path.