I am a great believer that people do the best they can. If they could do better with life they would…but obstacles confront us, and we let things stand in the way of being our best selves. Our best self allows God to lead us, to guide us, to fill us with His wisdom. Our best self is caring to others, loving and respectful to others, and is obedient and full of integrity when we give our word.
Then there is our lesser self. The one that does not allow God within us to guide us. The one that believes other things are more powerful than God. We give our faith to the power of bills, or the power of loneliness, or the power of anger, or the power of resentment. We believe that items or emotions are beyond God’s healing ability. Very often we believe whatever is disturbing our inner peace is so strong, that we even medicate ourself to numb the fear, pain, or unrest instead of seeking God. Some people use food to fill teh void, money to medicate, others drugs, others control, even others seeking relationships to fill the voids, but we often choose anything to numb ourselves but God himself, who wants us to feel our pain, own it a and heal its source.
This week I watched a very sad play that seemed to have three stages, except the venues were real life. One one stage, I saw a beautiful couple with a beautiful child struggle with everything from drug dependency to money issues, to pain from painful childhoods where their own parents struggled with the same dependencies and strife in their home. They want help, they want to change,but bottom line is they believe that fear, pain, and the way its always been is bigger than the Lord Almighty. On stage two I watched another young couple, working through the problems that addiction to sex and porn brings, a year of treatment down the road, struggle to believe that the anger, resentment, fear, and pain of years ago could ever be replaced by a healthy marriage, a healthy family and a new life, though they desperately want to. Stage three was closer to home in the demons that at times enter my own world. I saw a family man refuse to submit to authority. It was the same issue that cost him his wife, his careers, his children and his life of joy with God. He is so intent on being “in charge” that ultimately he loses much if not all of what is precious to him in order to be the one calling the shots.
God is very specific. We are to seek His face constantly, be in prayer about everything, and to continually come to His throne with our needs, however great or small. He has given us laws and commandements to live under. For this submission He promises us peace, a sound mind, abundance and prosperity in our lands, children, and careers. This was His promise to Abraham and we are Abraham’s people. Jesus again promised us that the covenants were fulfilled through Him, yet we still, as Christians, gloss over or ignore the blessings that God in His beginning ordained for his children.
This morning I am fully aware that the devil is real and he is moving through our worlds seeking to kill, steal, and destroy. We allow his devouring when we keep hold of our agenda’s so tightly, believing the lies instead of living God’s agenda and accepting the promises. God is God,….and God help us all….to help ourselves and others live in the love of Christ and the promises He fulfilled for us.
Sweetie
