I have been told in my life it is better to pray out of love than fear. Who can love a fearful angry God? Should God rule through intimidation and a vengeful heart, or love and a "father's" hand?
Recently my husband came to me with new insight that I feel I must share. He travels a lot on buisness and is constantly flying. He told me ha always prays right before take-off and right after landing, but is embarrased and guilty because he knows he shouldn't be praying out of fear, but love. On his last trip he forgot to pray before take-off and realized, that even in praying out of fear he was thinking of our Heavenly Father. Even in our fear we are reminded of him and we look to him. It is like a sticky note in our minds saying, don't forget he loves you and watched out for you. A blessing in disguise. So yes, it is good to pray in praise of him, but don't ever feel ashamed when you are reminded of him and your thoughts turn to the Lord. It is your thoughts of Him that He is looking for, however they come.
Sunday, November 23, 2008
Tuesday, November 18, 2008
Where has this passion gone?
Last year I was reading religous books, and praying often. It seems my faith has taken an ugly turn for the worse since I wrote this to my brother who was serving a mission for God in Argentina. I feel I need to post this now though, because I DID have passion once, I DID have faith, so why do I feel it has left me? Why do I feel abandoned by God and his love? I know I shouldn't be, but is it me, or is it God that has turned away?
So I am reading the books called the "Left Behind" series. It is about the rapture, when God takes his people up to be with him and changes them in the twinkling of an eye, but those that are..."left behind", then have to face 7 years of tribulation and the antichrist. The books cover all sorts of things and kind of put accepting Christ in your life into perspective, as well as what the Bible says will happen. They follow the Scripture really well and I have been reading the Bible as I read the books so that when they quote a Scripture (or referense it) I can look it up to. It is really very interesting. I am learning that I must take a more Christ-like approach to my life. I have been so judgemental of others, when I don't know what they have been through in their lives to make them react the way they do.
Did you know that God forgave murderers? I mean, Moses murdered a man and he went on to become an amazing prophet and the salvation of the Jews. Also one of the Apostles that came later, he was a devout anti-christian, and slayed many Jews before he came to Christ and wrote many books in the Bible.
My Favorite part of the "Left Behind" books was a passage I read one night that has always stuck in my head.
"I have full faith in the power of the Lord to forgive and forget, to seperate our sins as far as the east is from the west. But I am human too I don't forget and thus often I don't appropriate the forgiveness God extends. Because we feel guilty does not mean God does not have the power to absolve us. If you are the one who can commit a sin too great for God to forgive, you are above God. That's how we can wallow in our sins and still be guilty of pride. Who do we think we are, the only ones God cannot reach with his gift of love?"
I love that! I put the emphasis in by putting part of it in bold, but while the whole paragraph needs to be read together, the bold face part is my favorite. So often we feel we know ourselves better than anyone and we are not worthy of forgiveness because we cannot forgive ourselves or forget. But we are merely mortal, we cannot even comprehend the scope of God's love. When I first became a mother I thought there was no way I could love this much and not explode! When she hugs me, or smiles at me, my heart grows and swells with an amazing amount of love for this tiny creature, and still, I do not know the power of God's love for us. My own mother, whom I believe is one of the most forgiving and loving people I know, does not know the scope of the power of God's love. Imagine yourself a father, or mother and you must sacrifice one child, your first born, to save the rest of your children. Yes you have an eternal scope and you know you will see your first born again, but not until after your child goes through an enormous amount of pain and suffering. Would you still be able and willing to make that sacrifice? How could you not, and yet how could you? I cannot imagine losing a child, everyday I pray as I hold my baby, that nothing will go wrong and she will be safe. To let my child out alone int the world where I knew they would be mocked and scorned and hurt, would be more than I could do. How grateful I am that God's love extends beyond what my little heart can comprehend. I am so wonderfully blessed that someone paid the ultimate sacrifice for me and for him I will be forever grateful. What a wonderful blessing we have been given. And we don't have to do anything to EARN that blessing. It is already ours! "For by grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God. Not works, lest any man should boast" (Ephesians 2:8-9)
God's grace has already saved us, we already have our way into Heaven. How blessed are we! Once you are aware of that fact it makes reading James 2:17-18 so much easier "Even so Faith, if it have not works is dead by being alone." Once we know we are saved and have been given the keys to reach Heaven how can we not act more Christlike? Wea re to do good and live right, but not so we can earn our salvation, we're to do that in RESPONSE to our salvation. And how blessed we are that we have the ability to act that way.
Never forget the power of God's love, If you let that shine through you, if you are truly a "window to his love and a doorway to the truth" that Christ is risen and he is our Savior you cannot fail in bringing others to the knowledge that their salvation is secure if they would but turn to Christ, the only way to our eternal salvation and our key to Heaven and being returned to God.
So I am reading the books called the "Left Behind" series. It is about the rapture, when God takes his people up to be with him and changes them in the twinkling of an eye, but those that are..."left behind", then have to face 7 years of tribulation and the antichrist. The books cover all sorts of things and kind of put accepting Christ in your life into perspective, as well as what the Bible says will happen. They follow the Scripture really well and I have been reading the Bible as I read the books so that when they quote a Scripture (or referense it) I can look it up to. It is really very interesting. I am learning that I must take a more Christ-like approach to my life. I have been so judgemental of others, when I don't know what they have been through in their lives to make them react the way they do.
Did you know that God forgave murderers? I mean, Moses murdered a man and he went on to become an amazing prophet and the salvation of the Jews. Also one of the Apostles that came later, he was a devout anti-christian, and slayed many Jews before he came to Christ and wrote many books in the Bible.
My Favorite part of the "Left Behind" books was a passage I read one night that has always stuck in my head.
"I have full faith in the power of the Lord to forgive and forget, to seperate our sins as far as the east is from the west. But I am human too I don't forget and thus often I don't appropriate the forgiveness God extends. Because we feel guilty does not mean God does not have the power to absolve us. If you are the one who can commit a sin too great for God to forgive, you are above God. That's how we can wallow in our sins and still be guilty of pride. Who do we think we are, the only ones God cannot reach with his gift of love?"
I love that! I put the emphasis in by putting part of it in bold, but while the whole paragraph needs to be read together, the bold face part is my favorite. So often we feel we know ourselves better than anyone and we are not worthy of forgiveness because we cannot forgive ourselves or forget. But we are merely mortal, we cannot even comprehend the scope of God's love. When I first became a mother I thought there was no way I could love this much and not explode! When she hugs me, or smiles at me, my heart grows and swells with an amazing amount of love for this tiny creature, and still, I do not know the power of God's love for us. My own mother, whom I believe is one of the most forgiving and loving people I know, does not know the scope of the power of God's love. Imagine yourself a father, or mother and you must sacrifice one child, your first born, to save the rest of your children. Yes you have an eternal scope and you know you will see your first born again, but not until after your child goes through an enormous amount of pain and suffering. Would you still be able and willing to make that sacrifice? How could you not, and yet how could you? I cannot imagine losing a child, everyday I pray as I hold my baby, that nothing will go wrong and she will be safe. To let my child out alone int the world where I knew they would be mocked and scorned and hurt, would be more than I could do. How grateful I am that God's love extends beyond what my little heart can comprehend. I am so wonderfully blessed that someone paid the ultimate sacrifice for me and for him I will be forever grateful. What a wonderful blessing we have been given. And we don't have to do anything to EARN that blessing. It is already ours! "For by grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God. Not works, lest any man should boast" (Ephesians 2:8-9)
God's grace has already saved us, we already have our way into Heaven. How blessed are we! Once you are aware of that fact it makes reading James 2:17-18 so much easier "Even so Faith, if it have not works is dead by being alone." Once we know we are saved and have been given the keys to reach Heaven how can we not act more Christlike? Wea re to do good and live right, but not so we can earn our salvation, we're to do that in RESPONSE to our salvation. And how blessed we are that we have the ability to act that way.
Never forget the power of God's love, If you let that shine through you, if you are truly a "window to his love and a doorway to the truth" that Christ is risen and he is our Savior you cannot fail in bringing others to the knowledge that their salvation is secure if they would but turn to Christ, the only way to our eternal salvation and our key to Heaven and being returned to God.
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