I wrote the following letter to a friend recently and pray it will be an encouragement, exhorting, and admonishing to those who read it!
God can change anyone's heart and He can set us free from that which holds us captive. God sees what is on our hearts, our stumbling blocks, and the questions we have. It is wise to seek answers for the questions that may hinder us from growing spiritually or serving God the way that we should. When we consider the brevity of life compared to eternity, living for God wholeheartedly through His salvation is not only important, it is needed!
" ...I am writing to simply say that no matter what we go through in life, no matter how terrible our circumstances, life situations, or even relationships with others look, God is in control! He is not only in control, yet He can be trusted to use the difficulties, hardship, trials, and painful situations in our lives for our good. It doesn’t take a lot of sense to realize that if life is perfect and everything is going well, we as human beings will think “Who needs God? I am handling life just fine on my own, thank you!”
I plead with you, ...! Realize, acknowledge, ponder, and believe that listening to the voice of the world and the voice of the enemy will only cause us to drift and stray from God, from resting in His sovereign will over our lives, and from acknowledging that God is faithful and in control and able to take care of any situation in our lives! The world and the enemy are hostile toward God, even to the point of pure hatred and wanting to remove God and the Bible from everything!
Have you ever stopped to consider that people are “up in arms” trying to remove the Ten Commandments from everything, yet they are seeking to promote acceptance of any sin you can think of…now allowing gay marriage in more and more states/countries? What’s wrong with this picture is exactly how the Bible describes the human heart: wicked, prideful, self centered, and hostile toward God! Why wouldn’t we want the Ten Commandments to rule our land and foreign lands? Would that not prove to be a much safer, happier, and blessed way of living for everyone? Of course! Yet the world and the enemy are seeking to destroy Christianity, to destroy people’s belief in the Bible as the accurate and historically reliable word of God, and trying to desensitize people even to the reality of sin! Just watch an hour of MTV or the latest sitcom and you will realize just how wretched, perverse, and self centered people really are. I strongly exhort you: Plead with God for His help and intervention, day and night if need be! Ask God to bring your heart to the point of a genuine commitment to Him, a daily commitment, real faith, heartfelt trust, and total surrender. Ask God to teach you what He intends for you to learn through the current circumstances and situations in your life and to remove any bitterness, anger, and lack of trust in God you may have. Ask God to change your heart, to draw you close to Him, to make you strong in Him, and to reveal Himself to you in a way you cannot deny. Ask God to incline your heart to Him, to deliver you from the sort of hatred and hostility the world has against God, and to give you eyes that see, ears that hear, and a heart that understands the truth of God’s word. I admonish you! Pray constantly if need be that God would change your heart toward Him, change your perspective toward life and replace it with a Biblical perspective, and to soften your heart toward God and the Bible. Don’t be like the rest of the world who blindly, stubbornly, and hard heartedly are opposed to God, willfully and willingly hate Him and dismiss the Bible as an “ancient book with no relevance for today” (when indeed, there is so much evidence that proves the Bible is accurate and historically plausible, yet people don’t care to study and are too prideful, stubborn, self centered, and hard hearted to search and study!) Why should we as sinful human beings, wretches who try to remove God from everything, living blatantly sinful lives or others who live self righteous “I am a good person and can save myself” sort of lives, expect God’s blessing, favor, protection, and answers to prayer as we see fit? If God really is sovereign, good, all knowing, faithful, and trustworthy, why do we shake our fist toward heaven with an attitude of “What have You done for me? Where are You...”?
God can be trusted and He is faithful and in control, no matter how terrible life may appear. God knows what it will take to bring our hearts to the point of a genuine commitment to Him, where we cross from “knowing about God” to actually knowing Him. God knows what “idols” seek to take His place in our hearts and can clearly see what distractions keep us from following after Him the way we should.
God never promised us a happy life, or a problem/stress free way of living. He promised us His presence, He gave us the truth of Romans 8: 28 which says, “And we know that God causes all things to work together for good to those who love God, to those who are called according to His purpose”, and He is faithful to build our character through what we experience, to purge and refine us from anything not of Him, and to give us hearts of greater surrender, dependency, trust, and commitment to Him through the often negative, trying, and difficult circumstances and situations of life.
I find it fascinating how people will view life, themselves, and death. Don’t we so often treat every day like we are the captain and Lord of our own lives, a “sovereign self”, if you will? There are times when possibly I don’t feel well or even times I somewhat trip as I am walking upstairs, that I realize how frail we are as humans and how we can die at any time. Do you know how many things in life could cause us harm, injury, and even death? Yet we walk around like we have all the time in the world, almost like we are indestructible. Someone recently said to me, “Why is it that young people think they will never die?”
I encourage, exhort, and admonish you to cry out to God, ask God to reveal Himself to you in a way that you cannot deny, and to bring you through the necessary situations and trials of life to not only show you your need for Him, but to draw you to Him as well!
“There is nothing more important than your eternal salvation!” ... "
I plead with you, ...! Realize, acknowledge, ponder, and believe that listening to the voice of the world and the voice of the enemy will only cause us to drift and stray from God, from resting in His sovereign will over our lives, and from acknowledging that God is faithful and in control and able to take care of any situation in our lives! The world and the enemy are hostile toward God, even to the point of pure hatred and wanting to remove God and the Bible from everything!
Have you ever stopped to consider that people are “up in arms” trying to remove the Ten Commandments from everything, yet they are seeking to promote acceptance of any sin you can think of…now allowing gay marriage in more and more states/countries? What’s wrong with this picture is exactly how the Bible describes the human heart: wicked, prideful, self centered, and hostile toward God! Why wouldn’t we want the Ten Commandments to rule our land and foreign lands? Would that not prove to be a much safer, happier, and blessed way of living for everyone? Of course! Yet the world and the enemy are seeking to destroy Christianity, to destroy people’s belief in the Bible as the accurate and historically reliable word of God, and trying to desensitize people even to the reality of sin! Just watch an hour of MTV or the latest sitcom and you will realize just how wretched, perverse, and self centered people really are. I strongly exhort you: Plead with God for His help and intervention, day and night if need be! Ask God to bring your heart to the point of a genuine commitment to Him, a daily commitment, real faith, heartfelt trust, and total surrender. Ask God to teach you what He intends for you to learn through the current circumstances and situations in your life and to remove any bitterness, anger, and lack of trust in God you may have. Ask God to change your heart, to draw you close to Him, to make you strong in Him, and to reveal Himself to you in a way you cannot deny. Ask God to incline your heart to Him, to deliver you from the sort of hatred and hostility the world has against God, and to give you eyes that see, ears that hear, and a heart that understands the truth of God’s word. I admonish you! Pray constantly if need be that God would change your heart toward Him, change your perspective toward life and replace it with a Biblical perspective, and to soften your heart toward God and the Bible. Don’t be like the rest of the world who blindly, stubbornly, and hard heartedly are opposed to God, willfully and willingly hate Him and dismiss the Bible as an “ancient book with no relevance for today” (when indeed, there is so much evidence that proves the Bible is accurate and historically plausible, yet people don’t care to study and are too prideful, stubborn, self centered, and hard hearted to search and study!) Why should we as sinful human beings, wretches who try to remove God from everything, living blatantly sinful lives or others who live self righteous “I am a good person and can save myself” sort of lives, expect God’s blessing, favor, protection, and answers to prayer as we see fit? If God really is sovereign, good, all knowing, faithful, and trustworthy, why do we shake our fist toward heaven with an attitude of “What have You done for me? Where are You...”?
God can be trusted and He is faithful and in control, no matter how terrible life may appear. God knows what it will take to bring our hearts to the point of a genuine commitment to Him, where we cross from “knowing about God” to actually knowing Him. God knows what “idols” seek to take His place in our hearts and can clearly see what distractions keep us from following after Him the way we should.
God never promised us a happy life, or a problem/stress free way of living. He promised us His presence, He gave us the truth of Romans 8: 28 which says, “And we know that God causes all things to work together for good to those who love God, to those who are called according to His purpose”, and He is faithful to build our character through what we experience, to purge and refine us from anything not of Him, and to give us hearts of greater surrender, dependency, trust, and commitment to Him through the often negative, trying, and difficult circumstances and situations of life.
I find it fascinating how people will view life, themselves, and death. Don’t we so often treat every day like we are the captain and Lord of our own lives, a “sovereign self”, if you will? There are times when possibly I don’t feel well or even times I somewhat trip as I am walking upstairs, that I realize how frail we are as humans and how we can die at any time. Do you know how many things in life could cause us harm, injury, and even death? Yet we walk around like we have all the time in the world, almost like we are indestructible. Someone recently said to me, “Why is it that young people think they will never die?”
I encourage, exhort, and admonish you to cry out to God, ask God to reveal Himself to you in a way that you cannot deny, and to bring you through the necessary situations and trials of life to not only show you your need for Him, but to draw you to Him as well!
“There is nothing more important than your eternal salvation!” ... "
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