Author: ShapedByTruth

One thing that never fails to rub me the wrong way is to listen to people whine and go on about “Why doesn’t God bless me?”, or “Why does ‘so-and-so’ get blessed and not me?”.

These are the same people that spend between one hour a day or one hour a week going to church or reading the bible, if that…

They then turn around and spend 4 to 12 hours a day filling themselves with doubt and unbelief by watching whatever garbage happens to be on the TV, radio, in some magazine, the latest gossip, or the like.

Then they have the audacity to wonder why their faith is not working?

You see, God has already done everything He’s going to do about solving your problem. He knew about your need long before you ever knew you had a need. Like any loving parent, He is more interested in seeing you prosper than you are.

God has provided a solution to your problem by His Grace.

All that is left to do is receive His Grace.

To receive what God has already given you, you must do so in faith.

First you need to know that God has already provided for you, and there is nothing you can do to earn it. This is how you get faith, it comes by hearing and hearing by the Word of God.

Once you have the faith, the last thing that stands between you and the answer is doubt and unbelief.

The key is in overcoming doubt and unbelief. The best (and to my knowledge, only) way to do this is to:

1) Starve it out. Starve it out doubt by not feeding it. Eliminate avenues of doubt and unbelief into your life.

2) Drown it out. Keep God’s Word continually before your eyes, in your ears, and coming out of your mouth. Replace the unbelief with the surety that God is faithful to perform His word.

Psa 34:8 O, taste and see that the LORD is good: blessed is the man that trusteth in Him.

What will you be thinking of on your death bed?

Think about it…

Will you be thinking “I sure wish I would have watched more television”?

Will you be thinking “I should have bought another house”, “worn more designer clothes”, “I should have worked more overtime”, or “gone shopping just one more time”?

Or will you be thinking about the relationships in your life?

Will you regret the hours you were too busy to spend with your children? Your wife? Loved ones, friends?

Now, ask the question: “What is most important in my life?”

Remember without ceasing your work of faith, and labour of love, and patience of hope in our Lord Jesus Christ, in the sight of God and our Father;

Knowing, brethren beloved, your election of God.

You are all the sons of light and the sons of the day.

We are not of the night, or of darkness.

Therefore let us not sleep as the rest do, but let us watch and be calm.

For those sleeping sleep in the night, and those being drunken are drunken in the night.

But let us, who are of the day, be calm, having put on the breastplate of faith and love and the hope of salvation for a helmet.

For God has not appointed us to wrath, but to obtain salvation by our Lord Jesus Christ, who died for us, so that whether we watch or sleep we should live together with Him.

1Th 1:3-4, 5:5-10

fear is the expectation of evil

fear nullifies power in our lives

fear nullifies love in our lives

fear robs us of a sound mind

we are not to be full of fear (fearful), but full of faith

full of faith is expecting something good is going to happen

God did not give us a spirit of fear, but of power, love and a sound mind

Pro 28:1 The wicked flee when no man pursues; but the righteous are bold as a lion.

Joh 14:26 But the Comforter, the Holy Spirit whom the Father will send in My name, He shall teach you all things and bring all things to your remembrance, whatever I have said to you.

Eph 1:17 that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, may give to you the spirit of wisdom and revelation in the knowledge of Him,

Eph 1:18 the eyes of your understanding being enlightened, that you may know what is the hope of His calling, and what is the riches of the glory of His inheritance in the saints,

Eph 1:19 and what is the surpassing greatness of His power toward us, the ones believing according to the working of His mighty strength

Eph 1:20 which He worked in Christ in raising Him from the dead, and He seated Him at His right hand in the heavenlies,

Eph 1:21 far above all principality and authority and power and dominion, and every name being named, not only in this world, but also in the coming age.

Eph 1:22 And He has put all things under His feet and gave Him to be Head over all things to the church,

Eph 1:23 which is His body, the fullness of Him who fills all in all.

Jam 1:5 But if any of you lacks wisdom, let him ask of God, who gives to all liberally and with no reproach, and it shall be given to him.

Ecc 11:4 He who watches the wind shall not sow; and he who pays attention to the clouds shall not reap.

If you wait for perfect conditions, you will never get anything done.

Pro 22:13 The lazy one says, There is a lion outside; I shall be killed in the streets.

Any excuse will do to put off doing something.

Change has to come from the heart.

When we batter, badger, nag, or threaten a person, we are doing two things:

1) We are in effect saying to God: “Sorry God, I can handle it from here, I don’t need your help in effecting change in this person.” This is the opposite of acting out of faith and does not leave any room for the Holy Spirit to work.

2) God is Spirit, and he communicates to us spiritually via our spirit and into our heart. His is the “still small voice”. When a person is being inundated with offensive words, it will take some time for the person to get past the offensive words and get back to a point where they are not hardened to God’s voice. Badgering hardens the heart and even if the person wants to change, constantly nagging can slow them down while they deal with the nagging or threatenings.

Every time you interfere, you prolong the behavior. As soon as you step back in faith that God will take care of it, then the Holy Spirit can go to work.

I have been on both sides of this issue. I hate to admit that there’s been times that I’ve been judgemental and badgering. It is something I try to be very concious of now. Also, I’ve been the target of nagging and threats. I had to learn to not use the other person’s nagging as an excuse, but instead to look past it and try to see what the real source of the problem is.

Between all the movies, songs, culture, and pop stars, everyone is convinced that there is some special “soul mate” out there somewhere that will fill all the empty spots in their lives and that it is impossible to be happy without them.

All the songs sing about “i just can’t live without you”and all that rot.

The truth is, a relationship cannot be based on need.

If you find yourself saying “I need this person to be happy”, that is not love, it is co-dependency.

A relationship has to be based on what we can give into it

If both people are expecting the other person to make them happy, then they are both taking from the relationship and constantly tearing it down.

A relationship can only be built when both people are giving something into it.