Category Archives: Suffering

Blogroll, change, choices, complaining, Control, enemies, Excuses, Expectation, God, grace, Growing, Healing, journey, life, mental challenge, mindfulness, peace, personal growth, self improvement, spiritual enlightenment, Spititual Development, Suffering

The Benefit Of Worry!

According to the dictionary: Worry is giving way to anxiety or unease; allowing one’s mind to dwell on difficulty or troubles. Most all of us know worry up close and personal. At some point in our life and living, we have met and started an on again, off again relationship that comes and goes. For some folks it is frequently and for others it is seldom, but for all of us, it is reality.

Worry is actually a lack of faith, which is why the Scriptures teach us not to do it. Yes, I know that’s heavy, so go back and read it again: WORRY IS A LACK OF FAITH! Faith/Trust/Belief is what allow us to have and grow in a meaningful relationship with God our Creator. The Scriptures teaches us that without faith, it is impossible to please God. So worry is a lack of the thing that we need to please God, because it is by faith that we are saved and have relationship with God.

I know this is a strong statement and I know it stings, because I have been stung by it many times in my life, but the truth is: Worry Is The Result Of Not Trusting God! We either believe what we say we believe or we don’t. There will be times that this requires us to do battle with ourselves, because our spirit is believing and pushing for one thing, while our flesh and mind are believing and pushing for something else.

Here are a few things to keep in mind when you are doing battle with worry:

1.) God does not promise happiness, but he does promise joy! We are not always going to be happy and not everything in this life is going to go the picture perfect way that we think it should. We will have good days and bad days. I once heard an Army Chaplin say: “All sunshine and no rain produce a desert!” Some days, life is exactly as you hoped it would be and other days you feel like you are bailing water on a sinking ship. On the good and bad days, especially the bad days, we need to look for and embrace the JOY of the LORD. If you can discover the joy of the Lord in your relationship with Him, then that joy will lead you back to happiness by teaching you that God’s ways are higher than your ways. The joy of the Lord ultimately leads to happiness, if we are paying attention…

2.) Remember: You Have A Choice: Your Way Or God’s Way? The Scriptures teach that the joy of the Lord is our strength to live life God’s way, but God never forces His way on us, we always have a choice. The problem with the choice is allowing the wrong part of ourselves to make it. We basically have two competing forces within us and often they are contrary to one another. Our head tells us one thing and our heart tells us another. Which one do we listen to? Both and neither! What we really need to be looking for is: WHAT IS GOD UP TO? God is always working to bless us, grow us and mature us, but we often get in the way of the great things he has in store for us, because things are not the way we think they should be. The good news is that because God loves you, God gives you the power of choice and you get to decide for you!

3.) Joy is choosing to trust that God is faithful no matter what! No matter what choice you make, right or wrong, God is with you and He has a plan, even when we wander off of the path that He has marked out for us. It would be easier in the long run to stay on His path, but He gives us the flexibility of learning the hard way if that is our choice.

So what is the benefit of worry? When I am worrying, it is a sure sign that I am not exercising my faith/trust/belief. It is a reminder that I need to get my attention and focus back on God and the amazing love He has for me. So the next time you find yourself in a battle with worry, let that be a reminder to you to get the focus off of self and onto God…

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Blogroll, Creativity, Friendship, Gratitude, Growing, mindfulness, Personal, Suffering, Uncategorized

Movin’ On Up!

When I was younger, there was a show called “The Jefferson’s”. It was about George and Wheezie Jefferson and their dry cleaning business which after a lot of sacrifice and hard work finally took off and provided them a life that allowed them to “Move On Up,” The theme song was a catchy tune with the following lyrics:

“Fish don’t fry in the kitchen;
Beans don’t burn on the grill.
Took a whole lotta tryin’
Just to get up that hill.
Now we’re up in the big leagues
Gettin’ our turn at bat.
As long as we live, it’s you and me baby
There ain’t nothin wrong with that.

Well we’re movin on up,
To the east side.
To a deluxe apartment in the sky.
Movin on up
To the east side.
We finally got a piece of the pie.”

Movin’ On Up is what we were all created for!

Who are you? What are you going to be when you grow up? Where do you see yourself in the future? All variations of the same question and all almost impossible to truly answer, because we are continually becoming. Life tends to build to moments and moments to renewal and renewal to becoming something totally different.

At this moment, you are a reflection of what you’ve done or not done, where you’ve been or not been and everything experienced and missed has contributed to who, what and where you are right now in this moment. The truly beautiful thing is that in this moment you are ready to head into your next moment and you can be, do and experience whatever you want, if you will just make the decision.

Someone said that we are always one decision away from a totally different life. What I can pretty much assure you is that you were created for so much more than what you are allowing yourself to experience and while life has been building to this moment, this moment is not the end, but the beginning.

This moment is your opportunity to advance, to level up to grow into all that you have been created for. Everything you have been through good and bad, every feeling of up and dow, all the mountain tops and valley experiences have worked together to bring you to this time and place, so that you might go to the next great place of your creating.

God allows us to go low, so that He might take us high. God allows us to wander in the valley, so we might appreciate the breathtaking views from the mountaintops. God allows us to struggle, battle and fight, so that we might develop the strength, wisdom and stamina to go somewhere we’ve never been before.

It’s time to realize and believe once and for all: “What didn’t kill me, has made me stronger!” And the purpose of it all is to help get me to a new, better and more amazing place of living. Enjoy this new day, this new place and all the new blessings that come with it. You are amazing, you are blessed and you are movin’ on up…

Blogroll, Excuses, Family, forgiveness, Friendship, Gratitude, Growing, love, mindfulness, Personal, Suffering, Uncategorized

What Happens When we Surrender?

God knows you because He created you. He knows what’s going on in your life and has a better grasp of your thoughts than you do. God knows what you have messed up, that needs to be straightened. God knows what you have broken that needs to be put back together. God knows what you think is impossible and He has declared that nothing shall be impossible and that with Him. all things are possible.

God knows what you worry about in the late dark hours of the night, the things that keep you from getting the sound sleep you are so desperate for. God knows the reoccurring pain which flows from a broken heart that never seems to heal. God knows that you think your life is a total loss and He also knows better than you, that it is not.

God, who created you is the master healer, the divine author and the chief instructor to help you heal your heart hurts, discover the miracles that put the broken pieces back together and teaches you about the power inside you that will help you to overcome anything outside you that might try to take you down.

The secret to unlocking the miraculous healing that puts it all back together is SURRENDER. The first step of surrender is admitting and accepting that we are messed up. We tend to get distracted by how we got messed up, but it really does not matter how it happened, because once it has happened, the mess has to be dealt with. Once it happens to you, it belongs to you so the question is: What are you going to do with it?

God cannot do and will not do what we can do for ourselves. We can talk to others about our problems. We can blame whoever we want to for the bad stuff that has happened to us, but until we name it and claim it, then we cannot surrender and let it go. And if we want or expect God to do something about it, then we must do our part. Transformation takes place when we do our part, so God’s part can be unleashed and set free to do the miraculous in our lives and living.