by David Brenneman
"Incline your ear and hear the words of the wise, And apply your mind to my knowledge; For it will be pleasant if you keep them within you, That they may be ready on your lips. So that your trust may be in the Lord, I have taught you today, even you. Have I not written to you excellent things Of counsels and knowledge, To make you know the certainty of the words of truth That you may correctly answer him who sent you?" Proverbs 22:17-21
I am in the midst of a situation. Not work related. Not marital related. Electrical related. Something that is a conundrum of sorts. I have sought out some help but have to wait for the help to arrive when they can.
The temptation is to dwell on it n allow it to get the best of me. As one to whom God has blessed with a form of ability to troubleshoot things, not being the one to complete the fix or repair can be disheartening or discouraging.
My choice, therefore isn't to allow it to dwell in my mind but rather to wait upon the Lord to bring about the resolution. Having done all I know to do, the next steps are in His hands.
Without spending consistent time in the Word of God and in prayer...being the way that I am today wouldn't be possible. My much younger self would have reacted more irrationally. Would have jumped in farther without a full consideration of things.
A lot has happened in regards to growing in Christ for me and it is rooted in being intentional about wanting to learn more about Jesus. Of how to truly live out the Christian life.
Our world wants nothing to do with a life in Christ. It pushes self everything. Self help. Self assurance. Self this self that.
We can do all things through Christ who strengthens us. We can do extremely little on our own.
We learn how to react to situations in life that are less than pleasant, less than ideal. We learn how to behave as Christ would in these situations as well. We learn more of what's truly important and what isn't. Our lives are not our own, we were bought with a price, the shed blood of Jesus Christ. Our lives are to be lived honoring that sacrifice.
What we do in private as well as publicly is all known to Him with whom we have to do. What we put before Him and what we do with Him are intimately known.
All things that aren't working as they ought to are a situation in Christ. Jesus has no problems.
We can get emotionally involved or we can get spiritually involved. Emotional involvement usually doesn't end too well. Spiritual involvement usually puts us back on track or keeps us on the track of righteousness.
I also had some really odd really weird dreams last night and they lingered into my waking moments. Enough to be unsettling. Without persistence in time in the Word of God and being taught by the Spirit...I wouldn't have recognized a distraction that was a precursor to not writing this post well.
Without intentional persistence in a regular time with Jesus in His Word we don't have the ability to fully recognize or understand the schemes of the devil.
Believe me if you are not consistently, persistently, persevering in being in the Word of God you have no clue what the real dangers of everyday life has in it concerning spiritual matters and their connections to the physical world.
Some utilize the acronym: Basic Instructions Before Leaving Earth for BIBLE. It's way more than basic in its Instructions its the real owners manual to a life in Christ as God intended. It has all the required information for truly living and what to do when situations happen.
A chorus from a song comes to mind in times like this.
I will call upon the Lord who is worthy to be praised. So shall I be saved from my enemies
The Lord liveth and blessed be my rock
And let the God of my salvation be exalted
The Lord liveth and blessed be my rock
And let the God of my salvation be exalted.
Praise and discouragement cannot coexist.
This is still the day that the Lord has made and I will rejoice and be glad in it.
All NASB Scripture Excerpts used by permission.
New American Standard Bible
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