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trustandobedience · 1 year

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Trust & Obey – Thoughts from January 1, 2023.

As we enter the new year, I’m reflecting on the weight those two words have had on me since September. Trust and Obey – they seem like simple things on the face of it, something every “good” Christian will tell you is a part of life. However, when faced with actual challenges in life, I’ve found that trust and obedience are harder than the words imply. As is often the case with following Jesus, things do not always go the way we would have them go, especially with regards to our future plans and the things we want for ourselves. His plan doesn’t always line up with ours, and that’s hard to come to terms with.

If you’re anything like me, you love having a plan for literally any situation that comes your way. You’ve got that Type A, practical personality that means your every move is well thought out and considered before being made. And, if you’re like me, then you are absolutely devastated when things don’t follow the established plan. Whether it’s missing the plane you were meant to be on or something as simple as waking up an hour later than you’d planned, you just can’t handle the uncertainty and anxiety that comes with deviance from the plan.

And that’s an okay way to be! The world needs thinkers like us to hold it together and keep it spinning on time. Although we often get a bad rap for not being as easygoing or agreeable as the “free thinkers,” the world’s creative types, we are needed at the end of the day to make sure that the dog gets fed on time and the clocks keep ticking in tandem. We are important; valued for combating the very things that often cause us distress. That bring the order and stability that we are uniquely and unquestionably able to bring to a chaotic world. We show God’s orderliness, His plan and pattern through the way we establish our own structure in our day to day lives. We are living evidence of a Creator who refuses to leave things up to chance, who establishes order in keeping with His character.

However, sometimes it just feels like we’re getting in our own way, doesn’t it? I mean, life would be so much easier if I could just go with the flow, let things like disrupted plans roll off my shoulders, shrug it off and keep moving. But I can’t. I haven’t ever been able to, and I don’t see that changing any time soon. So, how do we navigate our lives in a way that glorifies God when it feels like the things we plan won’t come to fruition?

We have to trust His plan. I know, I know – it’s trite, and even I’m tired of hearing it on my bad days. Trust me, I would rather manipulate a situation until no semblance of the original plan remains than move forward without one. Giving my plans over to Jesus and trusting that He will do infinitely more with them than I ever could is HARD. It’s one of the hardest things I’ve ever had to do, and it’s made harder by the fact that it isn’t a one-time deal. We have to give up our own sense of control, our ideas for what we want or deserve out of life, and we have to keep doing that time and time again until the end of our days. As Isaiah 55:8-9 says, “‘My thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways,’ declares the Lord. ‘As the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts.’” There will never be a time when His plans are not better than ours. There will never be a day where what we think we want is better than what God wants for us. If our wants and desires are not aligned with His plan for us, then we will continue to be disappointed, and we will end up disillusioned with Him if we aren’t careful.

If you grew up in the church, or have attended church for any stretch of time longer than, like, three weeks, there are several verses on this topic that you’ve probably heard multiple times and memorized at one point in your life. We can start off with Jeremiah 29:11 - “‘For I know the plans I have for you,’ declares the Lord, ‘plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future.’” We don’t even have to look past the very words of this verse to get confirmation that He not only has plans for us, but that they are plans for our good, to give us hope. Psalm 33:11 confirms this once again, saying that “the plans of the Lord stand firm forever, the purposes of His heart through all generations,” and Psalm 32:8 tells us that He will “instruct you and teach you in the way you should go; [counseling] you with my loving eye on you.”

Of course, the “poster child” (or poster verse, if you will) of trusting in the Lord is Proverbs 3:5-6: “Trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding; in all your ways submit to Him, and He will make your paths straight.” This verse is about as clear as it gets! We are not meant to trust our own thoughts and opinions over the Lord’s, no matter how wise we think we are or how much we know about a situation. When the Lord calls us out of a situation we want to be in, there is always something else going on that He knows about and we cannot see. Since we know that His ways are higher than our ways, His thoughts are higher than our thoughts, He has plans for us, and that those plans work for our benefit even when we can’t fathom how, we can rest in Him and give Him our trust, our thoughts, and our plans for the future.

Indeed, we can even see implications in scripture of where a lack of trust in the Lord caused Him to delay the enactment of His plans (Matthew 13:58, “And He did not do many miracles there because of their lack of faith.”). This does not mean that the Lord’s plan is in any way derailed or misplaced, but rather that the Lord wishes to partner with us in the fulfillment of His plans for us. He wants our trust and obedience before He gives us the good things He has in store.

So, since we can see clearly at multiple points in Scripture that the Lord has good plans for us, how then should we live? How can we live out the trust we are meant to have in His plans and provision? Well, that’s where obedience comes into play. No matter what the Lord says, no matter where He wants us to go, what He wants us to give up, or who He wants us to forgive, we are called, as His people, to obey Him in all things. A point in the Bible where this idea is made clear that has stood out to me is the story of Jonathan and his armor-bearer from 1 Samuel 15. At this point in Israel’s history, Saul is king and the Philistines have dominated the Israelites completely, making God’s nation subservient to them in more than one respect. Jonathan, Saul’s son, decides to attack a Philistine outpost without informing his father and taking only his armor-bearer, a personal assistant of sorts, with him. Jonathan shows tremendous faith and trust in what the Lord would have him do, and obedience to what God said, by taking a step back and asking for His guidance before going through with what he wanted to do (verse 10). The Enduring Word Commentary on this chapter names Jonathan as having a “Romans 8:31 heart: ‘If God can be for us, who can be against us?’”

Jonathan showed wisdom and complete trust in the Lord in this instance. He knew that his heart might be wrong, that his human emotions and thoughts were fallible and might be leading him astray, and so sought the Lord’s guidance before making a move. Enduring Word makes the important distinction that he did not doubt a word from God, as had other figures earlier in 1 Samuel (cough cough, Saul), but rather doubted his own heart and mind. Jonathan was content in knowing his part of the plan without demanding to hear the whole one, taking one step at a time and trusting that the Lord knew everything that was to come. He showed an obedience fueled by his trust when he attacked the more than twenty Philistines stationed there with only his armor-bearer by his side.

We can take Jonathan’s example for how we should respond to our own thoughts, emotions, and plans, and take a step back to evaluate them next to what the Lord says to make sure they are sound before moving forward. When we realize that His plans work together for our good (Romans 8:28), that His plans will come to pass regardless of how much planning and strategizing we do for ourselves (Proverbs 16:9), and that He is working in His own time to keep the promises He has made to His people so that all may come to repentance (2 Peter 3:9), we really have no choice but to give Him the reins and see where He takes us.

Well, I say we have no choice, but what I really mean is that we have no logical choice but to obey Him. We can fight, and push back, and rage against His plans, but at the end of the day, we are only hurting ourselves. When it feels like all we’re doing is getting in our own way by trying to be in control, that’s because we are. Things will run so much more smoothly with Him in control, since He knows not only the future, but our hearts and the hearts of those around us. When we can fully trust in His ability to work things together for our good, the only choice that makes sense is to obey Him when He speaks to us and believe Him when He says that He will see us through to the end.

#trustandobey #trustinggod #christian #christianthoughts #happynewyear #2023 #scripture #bibleapp #1 samuel #jonathan #trust #obedience #christianblog #christianliving #christianity #faith #planner

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byfaithmedia · 11 months

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boughtwithaprice · 2 years

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Lamenting Over Lamentations

I just finished reading the book of Lamentations. I know it only has 5 chapters which is quite shorter compared to the rest of the books in the Old Testament. I’ve been to this book before but this is the first time that I was able to finish it as part of my long-existing and often-interrupted goal to finish reading the Bible beginning in 2016. Anyhow, I thank the Lord for allowing me to reach this far in my personal devotion.

I thought I’ve known Jeremiah after reading the book after His name. And so thought that was enough to explain why he was called the ‘weeping prophet’. But I guess I was wrong, it doesn’t just end there. His weeping continued in the book of Lamentations. Man, that must be tiring! It is!

The story of Jerusalem being captured and destroyed by Babylon just went on for a very long time. The Israelites kept sinning against God, continued to disobey Him, asked help from their enemies that they thought to be their friends, and became more confident to their king and rulers rather than the Almighty One. Hence, the weeping of Jeremiah just never ends.

There are so many things that I have learned from Lamentations and I just hope to summarize everything in a few words.

-Disobedience to God guarantees punishment. As for Jerusalem, she lost protection from the enemies, leadership of its people, guidance from God, and even vision of the prophets ( from LASB KJV Study Bible). The last one bothered me greatly. I mean, that is a great deal. Imagine losing that special kind of communication with God. Truly heart breaking.

-Babylon in the picture was God’s greatest instrument to show His blazing judgment towards the wayward people. Oh wait, let’s not forget that everyone in the nation was totally affected - the good and the bad ones alike. People are murdered, enslaved, died of hunger, etc. Shedding the blood of the innocent ones for the sins they didn’t commit isn’t fair at all. But that’s how painful God’s punishment is and there is no escaping from that. That’s why sins, however big or little, should be taken seriously because judgment comes in one-size-fits-all.

-Jerusalem was in great suffering that no words can describe which why Jeremiah’s weeping totally makes lots of sense. It was even mention in Chapter 4 that the situation was worse than in Sodom and Gomorrah. Jeremiah was no’t a cry baby. No, he’s not weak. Imagine being there with him and witnessing all the gore, all the macabre series of people’s unimaginable fate. One just cannot hold back his tears. The prophet’s tears tell us another scenario in a Christian’s life --Jeremiah was not sorrowful over his own sin. Of course he wasn’t prefect but that specific setting was actually about him lamenting over his fellows’ sin and over their disastrous (although already foresighted) experience. He definitely mourned for more than one reason since he was also experiencing physical pain during Babylonian’s annihilation. In His first book, there were lots of verses that contained deprecation dedicated to those who persecuted him, but as the chapters continue, He was that weeping prophet because he surely knows that after the earthly sufferings of the wicked ones, there also awaits one greater in eternity. Definitely worth crying for.

Forgive me for leaving other important realizations. I guess I’ll just have to continue admiring Jeremiah. I felt power in his compassion like no other. This incomparable compassion towards unbelievers, the ones who persecuted him, even the ones he personally knew such as his family. I cannot imagine how he was taking all the sadness with what his eyes and his heart were bearing. But he was helplessly hopeful, if you know what I mean. It is the grief in the midst of the affliction that reminds us to seek God all the more. And so, lamenting is a wonderful thing after all. When everything is so heartbreaking, I believe it is okay to cry. It’s another channel to get to God, a beacon that signals a humble urgency to be rescued by Him.

If I were in the same place as Jeremiah, I would definitely mourn with him with what we were witnessing. Jerusalem dealt with lots of suffering and God was satisfied in his own righteous act. But He didn’t abandon His people, in fact, He was waiting for them to walk away from their wickedness and toward His rescue.

The joy of our heart has ceased; Our dance has turned into mourning. The crown has fallen from our head. Woe to us, for we have sinned! Because of this our heart is faint; Because of these things our eyes grow dim. (Lamentations 5: 15-17 KJV)

Joy will certainly turn into mourning if we keep disobeying God. Otherwise, hope is all the same offered by the same great God. How amazing that is!

My soul hath them still in remembrance, And is humbled in me. This I recall to my mind, Therefore have I hope. It is of the LORD's mercies that we are not consumed, Because his compassions fail not. They are new every morning: Great is thy faithfulness. The LORD is my portion, saith my soul; Therefore will I hope in him. The LORD is good unto them that wait for him, To the soul that seeketh him. It is good that a man should both hope and quietly Wait for the salvation of the LORD. (Lamentations 3: 20-26 KJV)

For the Lord will not cast off for ever: But though he cause grief, yet will he have compassion according to the multitude of his mercies. (Lamentations 3: 31-32 KJV)

The Israelites clearly represents people to this very day. Some have already been suffering the sins they have once, twice, or have continually sown before, while others are on their way to their own kind of destruction.

May the Lord have mercy on us. How I pray for my friends, colleagues, family, and acquaintance to be shown God’s mercy. May they see how sinful they are, may their eyes behold God as their only hope, and may they come forth in repentance. May the word of God reach them while judgment is yet to come.

#lamentations jeremiah bookofjeremiah bookoflamentations personal christian devotion christianity baptist christianthoughts baptist #lamentations #jeremiah #bookofjeremiah #bookoflamentations #persona;#christian #personal #personaldevotion #biblereading #bible #christianity #christianthoughts #dailyreading #scripturereading #dailythoughts #jesus #jesussaves #kaperanggot

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madamemerola · 2 years

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✨THE BEAUTIFUL BALANCE. 💎As a Christian Minister who also happens to be a Certified Image Consultant and Professional Makeup Artist with over 20 years experience, I get asked a lot of questions about how a Christian woman should look/dress. ⁉️I know this scripture below has caused a lot of disagreements and concerns, especially for women who want to live a righteous life but don’t want to be drab while doing so. ➡️”Your beauty should not come from outward adornment, such as elaborate hairstyles and the wearing of gold jewelry or fine clothes. Rather, it should be that of your inner self, the unfading beauty of a gentle and quiet spirit, which is of great worth in God’s sight.” 1 Peter 3:3-4. 📌I have meditated on this scriptures for many years and I can tell you that I believe wholeheartedly that God is not against women wearing nice clothes, looking good and maintaining a nice figure. ➡️However, there are dangers in placing too much emphasis over our external appearance whilst neglecting our inner beauty which are the things mentioned in Verse 4. This I agree with 💯. ✅By all means, we should look good as Christians but it is all worthless if we have a poor attitude, ugly personality, filthy way of speaking and malicious intentions towards others. 📌Anything we do or say that doesn’t honour God brings shame on us as Christians no matter how beautiful we look on the outside. ✅Pursue THE BEAUTIFUL BALANCE where you develop and polish both the physical and spiritual parts of yourself. If you want your Heavenly Father to be glorified, don’t just be a pretty package. Let your content (your heart, soul and spirit) be so beautiful that it leads many to the knowledge of Christ. 💜LOOK GOOD INSIDE AND OUTSIDE. 📣My name is Madame Merola, The B.A.N.G Creator. XoXo from #madamemerola #thebangcreator #beautifulbalance #christianlifecoach #christianwomen #pleasinggod #lookinggoodinsideandout #christianimageconsultant #godfidence #meditateontheword #christianthoughts #thoughtleadership #empoweringlives #ambassadorofchrist #positivityandhopequeen (at Beautiful Balance) https://www.instagram.com/p/Cftz2B-DFXl/?igshid=NGJjMDIxMWI=

#madamemerola #thebangcreator #beautifulbalance #christianlifecoach #christianwomen #pleasinggod #lookinggoodinsideandout #christianimageconsultant #godfidence #meditateontheword #christianthoughts #thoughtleadership #empoweringlives #ambassadorofchrist #positivityandhopequeen

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kloveely · 3 years

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Pick yourself up, there’s no time for that.

Sometimes I wish I had the luxury of self destruction.

Since I was 18, I’ve been working job after job, I haven’t even had as much as one week off from work since I began working all those years ago. Now I am here at 30, sometimes it feels as though my life “should” look different. The way I pictured it going when I was first out of high school and even when I reassessed where I will be at 21. Things are much different. I can’t say that it’s a bad thing or a good thing. It’s just different. Not what I imagined. I’ve heard that people can’t dream outside of what they’ve seen or what they’ve known. So maybe it is a good thing my life looks a lot different because maybe that means I’m headed for greater than I could have ever imagined. I am definitely not there yet. Going back to what I was saying, even with that in mind, I still can’t help but wish, just once, that I had the luxury of self destruction. It seems as though there are pivot moments in life where you feel as though you’ve hit rock bottom. Everything blows up. Or goes array. Whether it’s self inflicted or just the way life happened for those persons. Everything crumbles, rock bottom is reached and for that moment that person sits there in self doubt. Not knowing what’s next. Feeling like there is no one to turn to. Honestly, in movies it’s probably the best part because it’s a movie, I know there’s no where else to go but up. Right? Or that’s just the way I am conditioned to imagine it. I never seem to get to that point. In my story there’s always someone encouraging me to be happy. To pick myself up. There’s always someone reminding me that I will get through this. That I am destined for greater. That this is merely one step back. Or one fall down. That there is hope, that there is a light at the end of the tunnel. That my God is greater. That I am not alone. That I am heard. That I am seen.

That person is me. I am so positive sometimes I irritate even myself. I am trying to relearn that it’s ok to be down in the dumps. That it’s ok to be angry, confused, broken, upset. Really I am trying to teach myself that it’s ok to be anything even if that means I’m not being optimistic or happy. Ultimately I just feel as though there is no time for that. In the back of my head, a lifetime feels like such a short stint. I feel like all the moments I spend not picking myself up are wasted time that I could’ve been just enjoying life. I dig deeper. I ask God for strength. I lean into worship. Eventually I don’t feel that hurt anymore and I am able to push forward. Again, I chose to pick myself up and relay on a strength greater than my own. 1 Peter 5:10 "And the God of all grace, who called you to his eternal glory in Christ, after you have suffered a little while, will himself restore you and make you strong, firm and steadfast." Psalm 73:26 "My flesh and my heart may fail, but God is the strength of my heart and my portion forever." 2 Corinthians 12:10 "That is why, for Christ’s sake, I delight in weaknesses, in insults, in hardships, in persecutions, in difficulties. For when I am weak, then I am strong." Now playing: “Everlasting God” by William Murphy https://youtu.be/qQlDLMaWHQA

#christiandevotions #christianthoughts #faith in jesus #shereadstruth

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rhans306 · 4 years

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wages of sins is death

#christianthoughts #jesuschrist #christ #savior #sins

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nachts-wach · 5 years

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God didn't bring you this far to let you down.

[Hebrews 10:23 | 1 Thessalonians 5:24]

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sheri42 · 4 years

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#watercolor #viola #christianthoughts #protests #antiracism #loveyourneighbor #poetry #remix from @charlenedoland https://inspirepassion.edublogs.org/2020/08/31/be-angry-and-sin-not/ https://www.instagram.com/p/CEnzZTeBzj4/?igshid=kwv6xbduepgz

#watercolor #viola #christianthoughts #protests #antiracism #loveyourneighbor #poetry #remix

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mona-of-the-west · 5 years

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Hubris

I wish people would stop complimenting me so much for being a wise, sweet, mature Christian; it makes me seem like an even more foolish child in the face of all their perceptions. Don’t they realize their kind words make being a wise, sweet, mature Christian twice as hard? Oh, how I have fooled everyone!

#pride #hubris #christian #christianthoughts #wisdom #Christ

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call-me-a-jesus-freak · 5 years

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"The presence of Jesus is crucial to what the church is. His presence is life; His absence is death. He is the most essential portion of who and what we are. He should be the most important thing about us and the most recognizable aspect that the world sees."

Neil Cole

"Organic Church" from Perspectives On The World Christian Movement

#god #scripture #jesus #bible #christian #god's word #quotes #christianity #christianthoughts #encouragement

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therevdeecee · 3 years

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Romans 8:28, Isaiah 25:1, Proverbs 14:27 #biblestudy #bibleverses #bibleversesdaily #bibleversesfortoday #bibleversesoftheday #dailybibleverses #christian #faith #christianthoughts #godsword #godswordfortoday #holy #scriptureoftheday #trustgod #trustgodbro #versesoftheday #wordofgod #wordofgodfortoday #wordofgodspeak #wordofgodspeaks #speaklife https://www.instagram.com/p/CMFKLgcBs6y/?igshid=15t8vdolrtluo

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christielifecoach · 4 years

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Word of the day Grow There is so much in the Bible regarding growth. Forgiveness is a start yet it’s about the letting go that is the true step of growth. One way to know if you’ve let it go is when you think of the person you “forgave” how do you think of then when you speak their name? Hatred? Love? Wish them dead or removed? Letting go is about freedom of negative thoughts regarding the person or action. Freedom from that negative relationship is growth. Peace too. Pray for your enemy forgive then let it go. #forgiveness #growthmindset #christianthoughts #wordstolifecoach #wordsofaffirmation #speaklife #youhavenotbecauseyouasknot #ask4whatuwant #focusongrowth #christianlifecoach #affirmationsoftheday #wotd #wordoftheday #christielifecoach #wordstolifecoach #beutoday (at Fort Myers, Florida) https://www.instagram.com/p/CFcSOC-ncH9/?igshid=1ojvc1ofg4wi9

#forgiveness #growthmindset #christianthoughts #wordstolifecoach #wordsofaffirmation #speaklife #youhavenotbecauseyouasknot #ask4whatuwant #focusongrowth #christianlifecoach #affirmationsoftheday #wotd #wordoftheday #christielifecoach #beutoday

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byfaithmedia · 2 years

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You are a Heavenly citizen 🙌🏻

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boughtwithaprice · 2 years

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