All tagged God

So, apply this to your life. When things seem a little annoying or painful in your walk with God, when the path God is guiding you down leads you through a desert and provides you manna to sustain you, remember the lesson the Israelites should’ve learned: a life of bountiful joy is undoubtedly worth eating a little bit of manna.

In the end, you can boil Solomon’s statements down even more—to just three words, in fact. Life isn’t fair. But I’ll qualify that statement. Keep this in mind the next time you see someone whose talents aren’t being employed properly, even more so when you become disgruntled with your position and believe it is your own talents that are being wasted. Life isn’t fair, but the God who holds it in His hands is just and good. He will not forsake you nor abandon you; He will use you as He needs you used.

So, no matter what happens tomorrow, no matter who becomes president or senator or representative or governor, remember that your time here is temporary. The lease on your home here is short; soon you won’t have to pay that rent anymore. When all’s said and done, you’ll have a wonderful, permanent home waiting for you. And there, you will be at home forevermore.

Ecclesiastes chapter three expands upon the latter statements in chapter two, wherein Solomon indicates that it is a gift of God to enjoy the things of this Earth. But, chapter three also provides some context in an important caveat to remind us that, even though many things are appropriate for enjoyment, they are only appropriate in the right time.

Every morning, mercy’s new, so start over and march on to the beat of a new drum. Today could be day one of the rest and best of your life if you’re willing to step out on the grace of the amazingly forgiving God we have who is so merciful He is willing to let you start each day anew. He is willing to essentially forget every wrong you have ever done so that, to Him, you committed no wrongs at all.

God doesn’t want you living in shame. He’s forgiven you of your sin. It’s time that you forgive yourself and let your heart move on to serving God fully. Trust me. Living in your own shame will only hold you back from doing what God asks you to do. You don’t want that, and God doesn’t want that.

There is no such thing as a “lukewarm Christian.” You’re either with God or not with God. You’re either filled with God’s righteousness, with the Holy Spirit, or you’re stuck in your sin nature. You have the gift of salvation or you don’t. There’s no in-between. You can’t choose to accept salvation and then give up nothing.

God is still God whether He’s with the other persons of Himself or not. He’s not a fraction where 1/3 + 1/3 +1/3 = 1 God. He’s light, so He’s light when He’s only a certain wavelength of light, and He’s light when He’s all of light. He doesn’t become less light, and He can’t become more light. He’s just light.

We tend to run straight toward asking God to provide via a miraculous divine intervention, but we often forget that we are God’s representatives on Earth. We are His deus ex machina. We are called to be an unexpected power to save others from a potentially hopeless situation. Think about this: if God just did everything by His divine intervention, what reason would we have to be on Earth?

When one part of the body of Christ has to do the job of two parts, it makes the whole body less effective. That means we’re reaching fewer people when parts of the body aren’t evangelizing in their mission field. So step up. Pick up your briefcase, or grab your screwdriver and go to work, using what you have in your unique position to adhere to the calling of Christ.