1 Cor 3:6-7
So neither he who plants nor he who waters is anything, but only God, who makes things grow.
NIV
Righteously applying the above Godly principle to our own lives should cause a believer not to become overly dependent upon others. That to mean becoming too dependent upon them for our own spiritual growth while considering that it is God which makes Godly things grow.
It is my belief that if we're not careful having lost sight of exactly who it is that does feed and cloth us we can promote others that do meet certain needs which can evolve into "Idols" of sorts.
I also believe that a parent operating in error can get to a place where they see themselves in their own eyes as the God of their child's life while lording the same notion over their children.
Think for a moment the next time you revisit the statement, I brought you into this world and I can take you out of it just as fast"!
In terms of what is true, was it that God brought them into this world having simply used the biology of your human form as the result of having chased your spouse around the bedroom in your youth? Or was it that when you were chasing them it had nothing to do with how You see the future value in that child as the investment and informing of Christ in them?
What is a shame and more often true when confessed is the latter is usually an after thought once they arrive and now you find yourself ill equipped in the midst of the process of trying to raise them along with yourself in God's sight.
Sometimes unaware we can actually temp and or burden others unnecessarily if we find them to be our providing source with regard to desires. When a parent is operating in harmony with God while raising a child their view should be that of Jesus which repeatedly stated, "I only do as I see the father doing".
A child of god that now finds themselves responsible for the raising up of yet another of Gods children should be increasingly aware of God's presence in their life. Basically don't hinder what you CAN see God doing in their lives and don't wing it if you don't know.
Here is where the body of Christ in the earth was intended to operate at it's best having found itself in God grace as if able to make disciples.
What we forget sometimes is that short of finding buried treasure or diamonds growing in the back yard the majority of earthly riches find their way to us through others. Often times those same riches get presented to us through our children, but only when our eyes of understanding have been opened so that we can see them as such.
Surely we thank God but do we forget to thank them as well if thanking God in a moment of respect that's due to their obedience having done the "Right" thing.
Now ask yourself this "Have we made a mess of things or not in terms of being made Holy as God is Holy?
If you have time some day sit and contemplate how one single tangible item (aside from a pay check) eventually finds its way into your possession that meets your need(s). Notice also I didn't use the term "desires".
1 John 5:21
Dear children, keep yourselves from idols
NIV
Jude 20-21
But you, dear friends, build yourselves up in your most holy faith and pray in the Holy Spirit. Keep yourselves in God's love as you wait for the mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ to bring you to eternal life.
NIV
Using marriage as the stage prop (symbol of Godly relational dependence) husbands, wives and or children can actually over burden the unity of a marriage. The trouble is there always has to be someone to blame when things don't go the way they were intended.
If we begin at the head and work our way down is God flawed as the head of Christ? Is Christ flawed as the head of man? Or is man flawed as the disobedient head over what he's been placed over?
One can choose to pursue that thought further through the remaining members of their household, but if they'll stop where their responsibility begins with themselves, there they will find that's all they're really in control over.
I once heard a man state as if his personal request for a wife, "Lord send me a woman that loves You more than she loves me". He then added, "How can that be wrong"? Maybe we should pray for children in advance in much the same way?
We always hear talk about a 50/50 share yet the reality still remains as our example, God tells us by way of Jesus that we are individually and corporately as His people to Love Him with ALL that we are.
For those that are not fond of redundant expressions, Jesus made sure while expressing that "All" means all.
Mark 12:29-31
"The most important one," answered Jesus, "is this: 'Hear, O Israel, the Lord our God, the Lord is one. Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength.'
The second is this: 'Love your neighbor as yourself.' There is no commandment greater than these."
NIV
There are those circumstance's where the Lord has given us all that He understands we need in the form of others yet we'll over demand those same person's in times of selfishness.
It's too easy to sometimes to get caught in the trap (lie to self) where we want compensation for the time we "Feel" that we've served righteousness. Righteousness does not serve according to time because having been born again we are "Now" children that only relate to earthly dealing(s) under the terms of the eternal realm.
Instead we should learn to enjoy His kingdom as such that is "Being" established just as we are also human "Beings" that are increasingly being reconciled through the mind of Christ as each then becomes the different forms of enrichment sent forth in His name and timing.
Too much is built upon the earthly understanding of reward(s) and more precisely to mean how we have each been blessed.
Learning to know when you are observing a blessing that is from God comes by way of divine (personal) revelation as such to where you'll often find that you alone with God may be the only one in that moment that's found "Able" to enjoy that blessing as such.
It's easy to say stuff that goes over the head(s) of children such as "Patience is a virtue" yet if there is no understanding or value placed on the more closely defined meaning of virtue (God instilled) we miss the intent and purpose for patience that have also been well managed.
Somehow when we find ourselves loaded down as if responsible for someone else's state of joy and contentment it's forgotten that our own prosperity as said believers comes from the Lord.
The best repetitive method (if there is such a thing) when torn between something tangible in your personal life and the Lord is to simply "Give the thing away". Yes, your read right just give "It" away.
Peace is so much more sufficient when it comes to being tormented because what's attempting to be robbed of you is not the thing you have in hand, but the Joy that comes having given it away as the result of having acknowledged your "Source" (Provider).
Short of the consideration of being physically robbed when situations do present, rather than thinking in terms of something being taken from you by some form of mental and or physical manipulation simply give it away if you feel your joy is also being stripped away.
By nature and without individual restraint(s) we can drowned those around us with our seemingly insatiable desire for "More" of what we assume we don't already have as a plate that's also full. Being a glutton does not only apply to food, in so much it's simply the desire for 'More" while in possession of "Enough".
I find it more than curious that God didn't express to woman to "Love" their husbands as if already equipped with the insightful knowing of "How to Love" especially once accompanied with the processes of child bearing.
Once having become a mother of kindred heart as the Lord appoints, what more often seems to be naturally evident (Abundantly) where love can be witnessed in contrast to the nature of men?
God's kind of love understood by Solomon while king having the wisdom God bestowed upon him.as it relates to the recognized inseparable bond between a mother's love for "Her" child.
1 Kings 3:24-25
Then the king said, "Bring me a sword." So they brought a sword for the king. He then gave an order: "Cut the living child in two and give half to one and half to the other." The woman whose son was alive was filled with compassion for her son and said to the king, "Please, my lord, give her the living baby! Don't kill him!"
NIV
I personally despise one sided opinions which suggest "Happy wife means a happy life". There is far too much temptation embedded in empty comments such as this. If accepted at face value statements such as this would suggest zero need for observing what the Lord has to say as if the need to be washed in His word.
Eph 5:25-28
Husbands , love your wives, just as Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her to make her holy, cleansing her by the washing with water through the word, and to present her to himself as a radiant church, without stain or wrinkle or any other blemish, but holy and blameless. In this same way, husbands ought to love their wives as their own bodies. He who loves his wife loves himself.
NIV
God also expressed to woman to submit to their husbands as to the Lord, yet who would that make the teacher in terms of who to learn from the full scope of respect (being respectable)?
The corrupt nature of the surrounding world rips and tears at these principles as those things which do corrupt which then leaches into believing households. Basically "Someone" left the door open which let the flies inside.
I'm not sure in this increasingly corrupt world "Who" has the tougher task. Is it the husband or the wife? Not that knowing should promote a viable excuse for either, yet it needs to be broadcast there is great need for teachers in the home that understand the God appointed task of someone being raised up within the body of Christ.
Far to often and prior to either husband or wife finding themselves fully committed to the obligation of their office held one or both will more often demand that they get treated as the Lord instructed their mate to do. As if to suggest, 'You first then I will follow your likeness".
If either needs their spouse to first demonstrate the call of their identity in marriage before they perform as prescribed, they need to remember who's example they're following (Christ) without weighing what others may or may not be doing in the moment.
How empty would the cross be if the Lord had placed a prerequisite on each of us that said, "Become Lovable in all things and only THEN will I love you"?
The more that each begins to accept counsel the Lord has provided as if "Good", following that counsel will promote the marriage He subscribes to especially when we remember the words of Jesus, "Why do you call me good? No one except God alone is good". (Mark 10:18)
Eph 5:21-22
Submit to one another out of reverence for Christ.
22 Wives, submit to your husbands as to the Lord.
NIV
Take a look around today and assess what you do see more often in the form of poorly trained godly household teachers (husbands and wives). Who were their teachers and how embittered were their students?
When divorce is chosen often times it was chosen far in advance of its manifestation when one or both make the choice to abandon principles Christ established by example.
I won't attempt to reach for statistic's in order to skew your opinion instead I would offer the counsel of Christ to guide your perspective.
Said believers should never draw upon those outside of Christ as if a believers example to follow, but only those which do make up the church (body of Christ). The word tells us that when one part suffers, every part suffers.
This suffering does not exclude the Church (Body of Christ) as a whole the world is still observing and taking notice of as if their gauge of all that is considered as "Good".
There is yet another myth that needs busting and that is, simply staying (remaining) married is not the objective for a believing household. As we can see many poor examples of failed married environments accomplishing that task by tolerance both in and outside the church.
I've met many couples through the years that do not confess Jesus as Lord, yet they'll go to the ends of the earth to protect what they understand to be said "Marriage". It's always in the "Why" we choose to do what we do as believers in Christ having learned how to be enjoined in matrimony that's also Holy.
Marriage was intended to be a living organism where mutual worship towards Christ continues to grow and flourish, because of all the great things He has done for us and through us. Each member gets to enjoy watching the Lord fulfill his promises through their lives in the form of "Change" (transformation).
As such where we first and foremost witness the increase of the kindred heart that resembles Jesus as we hope to find ourselves surrounded by as if a cloud of witnesses.
Many see the words "Be fruitful and multiply" as simply their right to put to use their chosen biological encounters.
As God's children we were not simply intended to be "Lovely" as the surrounding world would have it to mean, instead we were intended to become "Lovable" towards each other having been transformed through the renewal of our minds.
The reality concerning Godly "Fruit" is that when He causes fruit to grow, it always has "Seed" within it for future planting and those seeds contain the direct result of Gods word that prove to be "Effectual" because they do contain the "Life" of God within them.
What kind of a future does any fruit have that also has no seed(s) inside?
We must remember "Faith" comes by what? Is it not "Hearing" and that hearing needs be the effectual word of God? We need to ask ourselves as believers "What are we hearing and possibly why not when the result(s) as the "what" we say we have heard doesn't then perform as as if the substance (evidence) of "what we were intended to hear"?
If this passage were the only righteous description of the successful rearing of a child, who should then find themselves troubled at heart?
Some manuscripts substitute the word "Start" for the word 'Train" used below.
Prov 22:6
Train a child in the way he should go, and when he is old he will not turn from it.
NIV
Is what we say we're also hearing being observed as "Ineffectual" in the life of those teaching"? Being fruitful and multiplying in the natural sense is one thing yet producing spiritual "Children" that have been righteously trained up in the Gospel that's also full will become a undeniable thing in the future lives of God's children.
Multiplication is about fruit that's produced which comes forth from the tree of "Marriage". Much like the functionality of the church God intended which was originally intended to produce (fruit) disciples that become "Effectual" having been fathered by way of the abundance of Gods word.
The marriage environment being a shadow of the Church should also bring forth children that have been taught how to depend upon God in "All" things. One of the best ways to teach is to allow our children to hear our prayers for them which come from the same naked heart we approach God with.
Whether it be a child's approach for more attention, affection, money or property there is balance in all things especially while remembering who holds all things together.
It's easy to say to our children on the other side of problems "we're not perfect as parents" yet it's even more important our children see how all of God's children were intended to handle the thoughts and actions which speak to Him about our own imperfection.
Any of the above mentioned can become a form of over taxation if the desire for them is not taught how to be held in balance in the fashion of learning "How" to patiently wait on certain things especially while considering our own obedient expressions facilitate their manifestation in those we hope we are also teaching.
There's an older hymn that's sung which suggest one must "Take time to be Holy". Stop and think for a moment as to just how much of what we desire gets placed before the "Attention" of the Lord and then consider how much of that gets observed by our children day to day?
As those claiming to be believers in Christ we say to ourselves that He hears us, yet do we always get the immediate results of our petitions? Do prayers always get answered the way we've asked them to be?
What could possibly hinder someones prayers? Do you have and hold something "Against" your brother or sister in the Lord while asking the Lord for His forms of blessings?
How much more pressure do we place on those we say we also love here in the earth when they don't "Give or perform for us" as what we assume we need and on our time line?
More often most pray to God and then almost without being aware we go drowned those around us in our lives as if they are the ones we hold "Responsible" for the delivery of everything we've petitioned God for. Do we forget how we ourselves were supposed to participate as part to those same prayers?
Have you ever been that kid in the candy store that can't make up his mind because he's surrounded by the over abundance of "Goodies"?
The goodness of God when forgotten will not serve well in times of need. As part of a true recognition for salvation one must remember it's a process after first receiving the Gospel. How do you know? Are you still here and happy about it or will you ever sin again while still here in the flesh?
My suggestion would be not to dwell on yourself, but instead contemplating just how Holy the Lord truly is.
In doing so you might actually get closer to the greater reality over and above anything you might otherwise assume or encounter as the surrounding things of this world which try to crowd in on you.
I hope to continue this at a later time so please join me......
Righteously applying the above Godly principle to our own lives should cause a believer not to become overly dependent upon others. That to mean becoming too dependent upon them for our own spiritual growth while considering that it is God which makes Godly things grow.
It is my belief that if we're not careful having lost sight of exactly who it is that does feed and cloth us we can promote others that do meet certain needs which can evolve into "Idols" of sorts.
I also believe that a parent operating in error can get to a place where they see themselves in their own eyes as the God of their child's life while lording the same notion over their children.
Think for a moment the next time you revisit the statement, I brought you into this world and I can take you out of it just as fast"!
In terms of what is true, was it that God brought them into this world having simply used the biology of your human form as the result of having chased your spouse around the bedroom in your youth? Or was it that when you were chasing them it had nothing to do with how You see the future value in that child as the investment and informing of Christ in them?
What is a shame and more often true when confessed is the latter is usually an after thought once they arrive and now you find yourself ill equipped in the midst of the process of trying to raise them along with yourself in God's sight.
Sometimes unaware we can actually temp and or burden others unnecessarily if we find them to be our providing source with regard to desires. When a parent is operating in harmony with God while raising a child their view should be that of Jesus which repeatedly stated, "I only do as I see the father doing".
A child of god that now finds themselves responsible for the raising up of yet another of Gods children should be increasingly aware of God's presence in their life. Basically don't hinder what you CAN see God doing in their lives and don't wing it if you don't know.
Here is where the body of Christ in the earth was intended to operate at it's best having found itself in God grace as if able to make disciples.
What we forget sometimes is that short of finding buried treasure or diamonds growing in the back yard the majority of earthly riches find their way to us through others. Often times those same riches get presented to us through our children, but only when our eyes of understanding have been opened so that we can see them as such.
Surely we thank God but do we forget to thank them as well if thanking God in a moment of respect that's due to their obedience having done the "Right" thing.
Now ask yourself this "Have we made a mess of things or not in terms of being made Holy as God is Holy?
If you have time some day sit and contemplate how one single tangible item (aside from a pay check) eventually finds its way into your possession that meets your need(s). Notice also I didn't use the term "desires".
1 John 5:21
Dear children, keep yourselves from idols
NIV
But you, dear friends, build yourselves up in your most holy faith and pray in the Holy Spirit. Keep yourselves in God's love as you wait for the mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ to bring you to eternal life.
NIV
Using marriage as the stage prop (symbol of Godly relational dependence) husbands, wives and or children can actually over burden the unity of a marriage. The trouble is there always has to be someone to blame when things don't go the way they were intended.
If we begin at the head and work our way down is God flawed as the head of Christ? Is Christ flawed as the head of man? Or is man flawed as the disobedient head over what he's been placed over?
One can choose to pursue that thought further through the remaining members of their household, but if they'll stop where their responsibility begins with themselves, there they will find that's all they're really in control over.
I once heard a man state as if his personal request for a wife, "Lord send me a woman that loves You more than she loves me". He then added, "How can that be wrong"? Maybe we should pray for children in advance in much the same way?
We always hear talk about a 50/50 share yet the reality still remains as our example, God tells us by way of Jesus that we are individually and corporately as His people to Love Him with ALL that we are.
For those that are not fond of redundant expressions, Jesus made sure while expressing that "All" means all.
Mark 12:29-31
"The most important one," answered Jesus, "is this: 'Hear, O Israel, the Lord our God, the Lord is one. Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength.'
The second is this: 'Love your neighbor as yourself.' There is no commandment greater than these."
NIV
It's too easy to sometimes to get caught in the trap (lie to self) where we want compensation for the time we "Feel" that we've served righteousness. Righteousness does not serve according to time because having been born again we are "Now" children that only relate to earthly dealing(s) under the terms of the eternal realm.
Instead we should learn to enjoy His kingdom as such that is "Being" established just as we are also human "Beings" that are increasingly being reconciled through the mind of Christ as each then becomes the different forms of enrichment sent forth in His name and timing.
Too much is built upon the earthly understanding of reward(s) and more precisely to mean how we have each been blessed.
Learning to know when you are observing a blessing that is from God comes by way of divine (personal) revelation as such to where you'll often find that you alone with God may be the only one in that moment that's found "Able" to enjoy that blessing as such.
It's easy to say stuff that goes over the head(s) of children such as "Patience is a virtue" yet if there is no understanding or value placed on the more closely defined meaning of virtue (God instilled) we miss the intent and purpose for patience that have also been well managed.
Somehow when we find ourselves loaded down as if responsible for someone else's state of joy and contentment it's forgotten that our own prosperity as said believers comes from the Lord.
The best repetitive method (if there is such a thing) when torn between something tangible in your personal life and the Lord is to simply "Give the thing away". Yes, your read right just give "It" away.
Peace is so much more sufficient when it comes to being tormented because what's attempting to be robbed of you is not the thing you have in hand, but the Joy that comes having given it away as the result of having acknowledged your "Source" (Provider).
Short of the consideration of being physically robbed when situations do present, rather than thinking in terms of something being taken from you by some form of mental and or physical manipulation simply give it away if you feel your joy is also being stripped away.
By nature and without individual restraint(s) we can drowned those around us with our seemingly insatiable desire for "More" of what we assume we don't already have as a plate that's also full. Being a glutton does not only apply to food, in so much it's simply the desire for 'More" while in possession of "Enough".
I find it more than curious that God didn't express to woman to "Love" their husbands as if already equipped with the insightful knowing of "How to Love" especially once accompanied with the processes of child bearing.
Once having become a mother of kindred heart as the Lord appoints, what more often seems to be naturally evident (Abundantly) where love can be witnessed in contrast to the nature of men?
God's kind of love understood by Solomon while king having the wisdom God bestowed upon him.as it relates to the recognized inseparable bond between a mother's love for "Her" child.
1 Kings 3:24-25
Then the king said, "Bring me a sword." So they brought a sword for the king. He then gave an order: "Cut the living child in two and give half to one and half to the other." The woman whose son was alive was filled with compassion for her son and said to the king, "Please, my lord, give her the living baby! Don't kill him!"
NIV
He specifically instructed men to Love their wives as Christ loves the Church. If a man finds himself in the place where he needs to experience Love that is alive, who would that then make the teacher as a living example as it speaks to him "How to love"?
I personally despise one sided opinions which suggest "Happy wife means a happy life". There is far too much temptation embedded in empty comments such as this. If accepted at face value statements such as this would suggest zero need for observing what the Lord has to say as if the need to be washed in His word.
Eph 5:25-28
Husbands , love your wives, just as Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her to make her holy, cleansing her by the washing with water through the word, and to present her to himself as a radiant church, without stain or wrinkle or any other blemish, but holy and blameless. In this same way, husbands ought to love their wives as their own bodies. He who loves his wife loves himself.
NIV
The corrupt nature of the surrounding world rips and tears at these principles as those things which do corrupt which then leaches into believing households. Basically "Someone" left the door open which let the flies inside.
I'm not sure in this increasingly corrupt world "Who" has the tougher task. Is it the husband or the wife? Not that knowing should promote a viable excuse for either, yet it needs to be broadcast there is great need for teachers in the home that understand the God appointed task of someone being raised up within the body of Christ.
Far to often and prior to either husband or wife finding themselves fully committed to the obligation of their office held one or both will more often demand that they get treated as the Lord instructed their mate to do. As if to suggest, 'You first then I will follow your likeness".
If either needs their spouse to first demonstrate the call of their identity in marriage before they perform as prescribed, they need to remember who's example they're following (Christ) without weighing what others may or may not be doing in the moment.
How empty would the cross be if the Lord had placed a prerequisite on each of us that said, "Become Lovable in all things and only THEN will I love you"?
The more that each begins to accept counsel the Lord has provided as if "Good", following that counsel will promote the marriage He subscribes to especially when we remember the words of Jesus, "Why do you call me good? No one except God alone is good". (Mark 10:18)
Submitting should not mean only to opinion of the person. Instead it involves acknowledging the others struggles as they "learn" to gracefully accept their marital role which in turn promotes a Godly blessed marriage.
As each learns in harmony as if for the same cause (Christ) they soon find themselves equally yoked because of whom their vows are tied to as their "First Love".
Eph 5:21-22
Submit to one another out of reverence for Christ.
22 Wives, submit to your husbands as to the Lord.
NIV
Take a look around today and assess what you do see more often in the form of poorly trained godly household teachers (husbands and wives). Who were their teachers and how embittered were their students?
When divorce is chosen often times it was chosen far in advance of its manifestation when one or both make the choice to abandon principles Christ established by example.
I won't attempt to reach for statistic's in order to skew your opinion instead I would offer the counsel of Christ to guide your perspective.
Said believers should never draw upon those outside of Christ as if a believers example to follow, but only those which do make up the church (body of Christ). The word tells us that when one part suffers, every part suffers.
This suffering does not exclude the Church (Body of Christ) as a whole the world is still observing and taking notice of as if their gauge of all that is considered as "Good".
There is yet another myth that needs busting and that is, simply staying (remaining) married is not the objective for a believing household. As we can see many poor examples of failed married environments accomplishing that task by tolerance both in and outside the church.
I've met many couples through the years that do not confess Jesus as Lord, yet they'll go to the ends of the earth to protect what they understand to be said "Marriage". It's always in the "Why" we choose to do what we do as believers in Christ having learned how to be enjoined in matrimony that's also Holy.
Marriage was intended to be a living organism where mutual worship towards Christ continues to grow and flourish, because of all the great things He has done for us and through us. Each member gets to enjoy watching the Lord fulfill his promises through their lives in the form of "Change" (transformation).
As such where we first and foremost witness the increase of the kindred heart that resembles Jesus as we hope to find ourselves surrounded by as if a cloud of witnesses.
Many see the words "Be fruitful and multiply" as simply their right to put to use their chosen biological encounters.
As God's children we were not simply intended to be "Lovely" as the surrounding world would have it to mean, instead we were intended to become "Lovable" towards each other having been transformed through the renewal of our minds.
The reality concerning Godly "Fruit" is that when He causes fruit to grow, it always has "Seed" within it for future planting and those seeds contain the direct result of Gods word that prove to be "Effectual" because they do contain the "Life" of God within them.
What kind of a future does any fruit have that also has no seed(s) inside?
We must remember "Faith" comes by what? Is it not "Hearing" and that hearing needs be the effectual word of God? We need to ask ourselves as believers "What are we hearing and possibly why not when the result(s) as the "what" we say we have heard doesn't then perform as as if the substance (evidence) of "what we were intended to hear"?
If this passage were the only righteous description of the successful rearing of a child, who should then find themselves troubled at heart?
Some manuscripts substitute the word "Start" for the word 'Train" used below.
Prov 22:6
Train a child in the way he should go, and when he is old he will not turn from it.
NIV
Is what we say we're also hearing being observed as "Ineffectual" in the life of those teaching"? Being fruitful and multiplying in the natural sense is one thing yet producing spiritual "Children" that have been righteously trained up in the Gospel that's also full will become a undeniable thing in the future lives of God's children.
Multiplication is about fruit that's produced which comes forth from the tree of "Marriage". Much like the functionality of the church God intended which was originally intended to produce (fruit) disciples that become "Effectual" having been fathered by way of the abundance of Gods word.
The marriage environment being a shadow of the Church should also bring forth children that have been taught how to depend upon God in "All" things. One of the best ways to teach is to allow our children to hear our prayers for them which come from the same naked heart we approach God with.
Whether it be a child's approach for more attention, affection, money or property there is balance in all things especially while remembering who holds all things together.
It's easy to say to our children on the other side of problems "we're not perfect as parents" yet it's even more important our children see how all of God's children were intended to handle the thoughts and actions which speak to Him about our own imperfection.
Any of the above mentioned can become a form of over taxation if the desire for them is not taught how to be held in balance in the fashion of learning "How" to patiently wait on certain things especially while considering our own obedient expressions facilitate their manifestation in those we hope we are also teaching.
There's an older hymn that's sung which suggest one must "Take time to be Holy". Stop and think for a moment as to just how much of what we desire gets placed before the "Attention" of the Lord and then consider how much of that gets observed by our children day to day?
As those claiming to be believers in Christ we say to ourselves that He hears us, yet do we always get the immediate results of our petitions? Do prayers always get answered the way we've asked them to be?
What could possibly hinder someones prayers? Do you have and hold something "Against" your brother or sister in the Lord while asking the Lord for His forms of blessings?
How much more pressure do we place on those we say we also love here in the earth when they don't "Give or perform for us" as what we assume we need and on our time line?
More often most pray to God and then almost without being aware we go drowned those around us in our lives as if they are the ones we hold "Responsible" for the delivery of everything we've petitioned God for. Do we forget how we ourselves were supposed to participate as part to those same prayers?
Have you ever been that kid in the candy store that can't make up his mind because he's surrounded by the over abundance of "Goodies"?
The goodness of God when forgotten will not serve well in times of need. As part of a true recognition for salvation one must remember it's a process after first receiving the Gospel. How do you know? Are you still here and happy about it or will you ever sin again while still here in the flesh?
My suggestion would be not to dwell on yourself, but instead contemplating just how Holy the Lord truly is.
In doing so you might actually get closer to the greater reality over and above anything you might otherwise assume or encounter as the surrounding things of this world which try to crowd in on you.
I hope to continue this at a later time so please join me......
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