"Search me, O God, and know my heart; try me and know my anxious thoughts; and see if there be any hurtful way in me, and lead me in the everlasting way." - Psalm 139:23-24
I must admit that this study is turning out to be quite a stretching experience for me... As I have said before, joy is not an area that I have much expertise in. However, I have learned, in this past week, to be more joyful and to put my trust more completely in my Heavenly Father. I have found that it is much easier to have joy in the hard times in life, if you trust that God is going to get you through! Jeremiah 29:11-13 is a popular verse which states, " 'For I know the plans that I have for you,' declares the LORD, 'plans for welfare and not for calamity to give you a future and a hope. Then you will call upon Me and come and pray to Me, and I will listen to you. You will seek Me and find Me when you search for Me with all your heart.' "
My whole reason for doing this study is that I might search and find God, by searching with all of my heart. I want to put every last effort into becoming more like Christ. Are you willing to do whatever it takes to become more like Christ? Are you willing to trust God and find joy in Him during the dry times in life? I won't gloss anything over or tell you that it's going to be easy... Jesus never said that following Him would be easy! In fact, He said the exact opposite! People will probably call you crazy for holding such high standards, they will probably mock you when they find out that you are unwilling to do the "cool" things that "everyone else is doing." But, my friends, it is WORTH IT! To please Christ... there is no greater goal in life!
I will echo Paul in Ephesians 4:1-3 when he says, "Therefore I, the prisoner of the Lord, implore you to walk in a manner worthy of the calling with which you have been called, with all humility and gentleness, with patience, showing tolerance for one another in love, being diligent to preserve the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace."
Let us continue on with an eagerness to learn the great things of God! I look forward to starting our study of peace on Monday! This should be an interesting topic to talk about... Speaking of which, I have created an e-mail specific to this blog and if you have an questions or comments about anything discussed or of something yet to come please e-mail me at afflquestions@yahoo.com .
My hope is that you will spend this day in prayer, asking God to become your joy... I thought it would be this weird thing to pray and ask God to be my joy, because I was afraid of losing the joy that I had in other things... How ridiculous! "Oh, Lord, I'm not sure if I want Your joy, or this tainted and imperfect view of joy that I currently possess!" I can be pretty dense sometimes! But now I understand, a little bit more, what God meant in Jeremiah 29... He knows the plans that He has for us! What a relief! God actually means what He says in His Word! Such revelation!
My prayer this morning has been, "Lord, help me to never get beyond having my mind blown by the work that You did at the cross!" I never, ever, EVER, want to become desensitized to the cross! For therein lies my salvation and yours! May this thought alone bring you to a place of humbleness and joy as you meditate on the completed work of Christ's death on your behalf.
Again if you have any questions or comments about today's topic or any other, please e-mail me at afflquestions@yahoo.com . Or you can click on "comments" (right below this entry) and leave your message there!
Friends, may the grace and peace of God be with you all!
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
No comments:
Post a Comment