Thoughts About Life

The purpose of our life is to obey God and loves others. In doing that we can store up treasures in heaven even as we have or don't have treasures on earth. God wants us to enjoy life and make the most of every opportunity to love Him and others. That's the ideal, but God lovingly accepts our real and works in us through the Holy Spirit to become the ideal one day (steps closer now and ultimately in heaven). The world is messed up and so are we. Trouble will come (tragedy, etc), but we must trust God to continue to act in love and for our good. We should try to focus on thankfulness of what we have versus fear of what we don't. Regardless, when the fears and anxieties come, we pray about them. We can work towards preventing fears (by making wise choices), but we cannot stay immobile in fear when there is nothing we can do about it (like being afraid I'll or someone I care about will have a miscarriage). We trust God to do the best for us even if we will never understand how something was best. Staying stuck in fear/worry/anxiety/frustration is sometimes me condemning my real self and ignoring that God is ideal.

Hiding

"Whenever the real self becomes apparent, the ideal self will judge it, and try to make it hide. And when we are hiding, we are not in relationship with God and others." ~Henry Cloud in Changes that Heal. (From Part 4 about sorting out good and bad, specifically in a section about how we tend to live as if we are our ideal selves.)

Verse of the Day

HEB 12:14-15 NIV

Make every effort to live in peace with everyone and to be holy; without holiness no one will see the Lord. See to it that no one falls short of the grace of God and that no bitter root grows up to cause trouble and defile many.

Forgiveness can be a hard thing. Sometimes when I think about it, I only think about it being a command. God says to forgive just as Christ forgives. So sometimes I only begin to think of forgiveness as a command that I don't want to break and then eventually compassion, healing and grace come.

I've also thought of forgiveness as a way to prevent and end bitterness. It's no fun to have bitterness; sometimes it's worse than the initial offense. So, especially for an offense in which the offender is not asking for forgiveness, I find myself realizing I don't want to be bitter and head towards forgiveness from there.

These verses provide another reason to head towards forgiveness, and that's to not prevent God's grace. God chooses to show grace through us sometimes. We want to join God in His pursuit of others and choice to bless others. I don't want to be like Jonah and say Nineveh (my offender) doesn't deserve grace. That leads to bitterness or a being swallowed by a fish...

Verse of the Day

Acts 3:26 NIV

"When God raised up his servant, he sent him first to you to bless you by turning each of you from your wicked ways.” (Peter addressing his fellow Israelites after healing a lame beggar)