I've been thinking... that's always dangerous.
I was thinking about how good God is, not so much in what He does, but who He is. How when we live for Him and do as He instructs how much easier our life is.
Sometimes I think about our struggles and how we don't see the forest for the trees. I was talking to someone who struggles with alcohol addiction. She was saying how she sees people leaving a bar and how she thinks "the next day you're going to have a hang over".
I was thinking about some of the things I struggle with. That in a moment I could have happiness or just a little fun and probably no one would know, except me and God. And how that would leave me empty, struggling even more.
But when I think about just 'moment' of fun that will lead to destruction, I think about that emptiness and how long it takes to climb out of that pit, but when I cling to Jesus, that moment of struggle passes, leaving with fullness of God and His promises.
It says in Psalm 37:4 Delight yourself in the LORD and he will give you the desires of your heart. I see God in so much now. I see Him on softball fields, in serving, in sunsets, in provision, in children, even in grocery store cashiers. I think about how blessed I am, how blessed I am that He would want to have a relationship with me, how He would pursue me. And it seems the more I pursue Him, the more it seems He loves me.
1 John 4:9-17 7Dear friends, let us love one another, for love comes from God. Everyone who loves has been born of God and knows God. 8Whoever does not love does not know God, because God is love. 9This is how God showed his love among us: He sent his one and only Son[b] into the world that we might live through him. 10This is love: not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son as an atoning sacrifice for[c] our sins. 11Dear friends, since God so loved us, we also ought to love one another. 12No one has ever seen God; but if we love one another, God lives in us and his love is made complete in us.
13We know that we live in him and he in us, because he has given us of his Spirit. 14And we have seen and testify that the Father has sent his Son to be the Savior of the world. 15If anyone acknowledges that Jesus is the Son of God, God lives in him and he in God. 16And so we know and rely on the love God has for us. God is love. Whoever lives in love lives in God, and God in him. 17In this way, love is made complete among us so that we will have confidence on the day of judgment, because in this world we are like him. 18There is no fear in love. But perfect love drives out fear, because fear has to do with punishment. The one who fears is not made perfect in love.
19We love because he first loved us. 20If anyone says, "I love God," yet hates his brother, he is a liar. For anyone who does not love his brother, whom he has seen, cannot love God, whom he has not seen. 21And he has given us this command: Whoever loves God must also love his brother.
I was thinking about how good God is, not so much in what He does, but who He is. How when we live for Him and do as He instructs how much easier our life is.
Sometimes I think about our struggles and how we don't see the forest for the trees. I was talking to someone who struggles with alcohol addiction. She was saying how she sees people leaving a bar and how she thinks "the next day you're going to have a hang over".
I was thinking about some of the things I struggle with. That in a moment I could have happiness or just a little fun and probably no one would know, except me and God. And how that would leave me empty, struggling even more.
But when I think about just 'moment' of fun that will lead to destruction, I think about that emptiness and how long it takes to climb out of that pit, but when I cling to Jesus, that moment of struggle passes, leaving with fullness of God and His promises.
It says in Psalm 37:4 Delight yourself in the LORD and he will give you the desires of your heart. I see God in so much now. I see Him on softball fields, in serving, in sunsets, in provision, in children, even in grocery store cashiers. I think about how blessed I am, how blessed I am that He would want to have a relationship with me, how He would pursue me. And it seems the more I pursue Him, the more it seems He loves me.
1 John 4:9-17 7Dear friends, let us love one another, for love comes from God. Everyone who loves has been born of God and knows God. 8Whoever does not love does not know God, because God is love. 9This is how God showed his love among us: He sent his one and only Son[b] into the world that we might live through him. 10This is love: not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son as an atoning sacrifice for[c] our sins. 11Dear friends, since God so loved us, we also ought to love one another. 12No one has ever seen God; but if we love one another, God lives in us and his love is made complete in us.
13We know that we live in him and he in us, because he has given us of his Spirit. 14And we have seen and testify that the Father has sent his Son to be the Savior of the world. 15If anyone acknowledges that Jesus is the Son of God, God lives in him and he in God. 16And so we know and rely on the love God has for us. God is love. Whoever lives in love lives in God, and God in him. 17In this way, love is made complete among us so that we will have confidence on the day of judgment, because in this world we are like him. 18There is no fear in love. But perfect love drives out fear, because fear has to do with punishment. The one who fears is not made perfect in love.
19We love because he first loved us. 20If anyone says, "I love God," yet hates his brother, he is a liar. For anyone who does not love his brother, whom he has seen, cannot love God, whom he has not seen. 21And he has given us this command: Whoever loves God must also love his brother.
Comments
...and I love I John 4 --it's a favorite passage of mine. I know a song where the lyric is I John 4:7-8
Too bad I can't teach it to you!
I guess I could sing it and post it on my blog....nah.
Climbing out of that pit isn't worth the moment of fun is it? Not when what He offers is so much more>