Realize who God made you to be. Why you are the way you are. And you will begin to understand that you were created for a purpose. All the little and not so little intangibles that make you who you are, are there for a reason. If you are where He wants you, if you can "Be still and know that He is God", you will find that indeed, you are "wonderfully and perfectly made". Yes, there is a purpose to all the 'character building' we find ourselves going through. That purpose is to glorify Him as we are of use to others. When we are in that special place, and when we finally 'get it', we find no greater self-fulfillment and deep inner peace and joy.
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Friendship
Friendship
I see so many posts that talk about true friends and all that and then saying what a true friend is, but then if you ever betray them that they will close the door. Other posts tell you to live for yourself, get anyone out of your life that doesn’t help you. Well, this may be all that some people think about when they think of a friend, but it is not what I feel a real friendship is. Real true friendship is not self-serving. Are we friends, or do we love others for what it does for us? Is that what Christ calls us to do? Christ’s love is unconditional. That is so hard, nearly impossible for some people to wrap their heads around. Let me tell you what I believe. I believe that unconditional love and those that work towards that end will be criticized as weak, foolish and lacking self-respect. Unconditional love is far from any of that. Unconditional love is hard. When life and people throw stuff at us that hurts, do we walk away, or do we continue to love? If we walk away, we are not showing Christ’s love, we are showing human love. Human love exhibits limits, Christ’s love has none. When I love, I try as hard as I can to make that unconditional. We need to value others the way Christ values them. We need to love them as much as or even more than we love ourselves. I forgive others more quickly than I forgive myself. The reason for this is that I can make excuses for others; I don’t know the battles they fight. I know the battles I fight. I also know who fights those battles with me. We need to learn to do the right thing because it’s the right thing to do. We don’t want to love out of any value that we may get from it. We should not do it for rewards, just to love. That is what real and true friendship means.
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Woke up at 3am with the Lazarus story on my mind, not sure why. Was thinking about the reason for the delay in bringing Lazarus back from the dead. Had Jesus responded immediately, people would have been saying " Oh thank you Jesus, God is good, thank you, thank you." Perhaps one of the reasons for Christ delaying in coming to raise Lazarus was to work out the rest of the story. Would the people's faith in God's love for them and for Lazarus have been tested with the delay? Would people maybe even question if God could or would raise him? Would people begin to miss Lazarus? Perhaps he was the sole breadwinner for the family and now they were faced with a harsh reality of 'now what?'. Was Lazarus the friend someone could always rely on, and now he was gone? Was he the one that walked the dog every morning? The reality of not having him around would have some time to set in. Maybe when Jesus finally did arrive and raise him, people would not only have said " Oh thank you Jesus, God is good, thank you, thank you." Maybe they also would have realized how important Lazarus was to them. Maybe they would start to appreciate him.
Maybe the lesson in all this for us is to trust that God does love us; He doesn't just love 'mankind' , He loves us, He loves YOU!! His timing is not our timing, because His timing is perfect! He can restore that which you believe to be permanently lost. He will show up in your time of need, He does not ever forget you. Even death is no match for Him. He wants us to love one another, to value and appreciate one another.
Who are the people in our own lives that we take for granted? Who is there whenever we need them? Who shows up to help when others are still asking if we need anything? Who doesn't look for reward? Who doesn't stand around looking to be thanked, but that we have to go seek them out to thank them?
Don't think of this post as "yeah, there are people like that in my life and I should treat them better." Name someone right now that you are going to go out of your way today to thank, and follow through! You'll both be glad you did!
Maybe the lesson in all this for us is to trust that God does love us; He doesn't just love 'mankind' , He loves us, He loves YOU!! His timing is not our timing, because His timing is perfect! He can restore that which you believe to be permanently lost. He will show up in your time of need, He does not ever forget you. Even death is no match for Him. He wants us to love one another, to value and appreciate one another.
Who are the people in our own lives that we take for granted? Who is there whenever we need them? Who shows up to help when others are still asking if we need anything? Who doesn't look for reward? Who doesn't stand around looking to be thanked, but that we have to go seek them out to thank them?
Don't think of this post as "yeah, there are people like that in my life and I should treat them better." Name someone right now that you are going to go out of your way today to thank, and follow through! You'll both be glad you did!
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