What's your Cicum-Stance

I've run into a lot of people lately who let their attitude be dictated by their circumstances. They let the issues and problems they face dictate how they react, how they think, and how they perceive themselves. Recently, I was counseling an individual about some of the issues that they were facing and it was sad. This person's attitude was killing them, mostly because they had developed a defeated mindset and all they could think about the problems they were facing. One of my favorite books i've been reading has been describing this exact mindset and it was so cool to see myself have a positive mindset and try to encourage this person. It also was super horrible to see this mindset in action and that it was holding this person back from becoming the person they needed to be. If you want your best life now, then don't let your mindset be the judge of your future. Decide to be better, decide to make a change.

Leave no man behind

Everyone has days when they need to be picked up. Its like they are hitchhiking on the side of the road with a large bag and hoping that someone will drive by and take them a couple miles so they can continue on their journey. Some days are hard and you may be traveling down life's path and those bags you're carrying are really getting heavy and it would be so nice if someone would just drive by and offer to give you a ride for a couple miles. There's actually a couple verses that talk about this.

Psalm 68:19

Praise be to the Lord, to God our Savior,
who daily bears our burdens.

Galatians 6:2

Carry each other’s burdens...

When life is getting tough and the journey is getting difficult, God will bear your burdens with you. That means that you can jump in His car and He will give you a lift whenever you need it. Take comfort in that. The second verse though is just as important. Because God carries our burdens we should help others carry theirs. This doesn't mean that we take responsibility of each other's troubles. It means that we lend them a hand, ask to share the load. God doesn't want you to carry someone else's problems for them, He wants you to be available to them, to encourage them, to give them water breaks when they need it, to offer them comfort. We all have our own burdens to carry, sometimes we just need to offer a helping hand, drive someone a couple miles, or walk with them for company. Sometimes people just need that small moment of encouragement to get them through the day with a smile on their face.

Rebirthing Love

Most humans always exclaim about how great relationships are and how those relationships are necessary for existence. Some people need lots of close friends and then some acquaintances to spice things up. Others just need a few friends and could care less about the next person they meet. But I'll admit, there are times when I get drained from relationships. People let you down, expectations change, Satan begins to take over and change your perceptions, teasing you, giving suggestions about what feels right, and clouding your mind with doubts. He literally plays with your emotions and uses them against you to get you caught in a rut, and I'll be honest its not a fun place to be and it can be even worse for those around you. So what do you do when you feel like you can't love anymore? When you're so twisted around mentally by Satan that you don't feel the need to care? The first thing to do is to turn to God, and here's a great verse to start at: Luke 7:47 "Therefore, I tell you, her many sins have been forgiven—as her great love has shown. But whoever has been forgiven little loves little.” In this verse, Jesus explains that your forgiveness determines your love. When you understand that God has forgiven you of a great many sins, you learn how to love like never before. The same is true of forgiving others. The more you forgive others, the greater opportunity for them to love you back. Another great verse is 1 John 4:19 "We love because He first loved us." God loved you first, and because of that you can find the strength to recharge your love meter and share that with other people. Just think about it. God loves you. He loves you enough to forgive all your sins. He has promised to forget them. He has also promised to bless you, to protect you, and strengthen you. God has your very best interests at heart, despite how you respond, react, or even neglect His truth in your life. NO matter how much you ignore God, He cares for you continually. Think about it.....ponder that thought before going on.....let it sink in........

Do you feel better? Do you feel refreshed? So here's the next step. Ephesians 5 says "Follow God’s example....and walk in the way of love, just as Christ loved us." Let God's love envelope you so that you want to share it with others so that you follow this example: "Be kind and compassionate to one another, forgiving each other, just as in Christ God forgave you." Think about that.....have you been compassionate to others? Are you forgiving? Being a forgiving person isn't about liking someone. It's about not remembering what that person did that hurt you and not holding it against them. The first step, is to stop thinking about it, and every time you think about it change your thoughts to something else because then you will harden your heart towards that person and that relationship will be strained, particularly for those who are close to you. Sometimes this will take patience but according to 2 Peter 3:9 God is super patient with us: "Instead He is patient with you, not wanting anyone to perish, but everyone to come to repentance." God is always looking out for your best interests. He's concerned about you and He wants to talk, comfort, and uphold you. "And so we know and rely on the love God has for us." (1 john 4:16) Rely on God's love because it will renew you. So getting back to those relationships you have that maybe strenuous at the moment. What are you thinking now? Let God's love soak through you so that you are able to fully love those around you. Otherwise you're setting yourself up for failure because without love everything you do will be like a "clanging cymbal" it'll just be noise to that person. What do you want to do? Help those around you recharge through the Love of God? or be constant "noise" that only causes them to be more frustrated at their situation further pushing them into Satan's grasp and cunning.

Respect it

Jeremiah 7:9-15

“‘Will you steal and murder, commit adultery and perjury,[a] burn incense to Baal and follow other gods you have not known, 10 and then come and stand before me in this house, which bears my Name, and say, “We are safe”—safe to do all these detestable things? 11 Has this house, which bears my Name, become a den of robbers to you? But I have been watching! declares the LORD.

12 “‘Go now to the place in Shiloh where I first made a dwelling for my Name, and see what I did to it because of the wickedness of my people Israel. 13 While you were doing all these things, declares the LORD, I spoke to you again and again, but you did not listen; I called you, but you did not answer. 14 Therefore, what I did to Shiloh I will now do to the house that bears my Name, the temple you trust in, the place I gave to you and your ancestors. 15 I will thrust you from my presence, just as I did all your fellow Israelites, the people of Ephraim.’

What a fool you are if you think you can live a life that reflects sin and yet you go to church expecting forgiveness. What does God say? "I spoke to you again and again, but you did not listen...I will thrust you from my presence..." If you don't listen to what God is telling you, be prepare to be humiliated before God and man. That's probably the worst thing that could happen to you. Being embarrassed in front of God.

Tragedy of living for myself

The Christian life is and has always been about God first, people second, me third. When you mix up the order your life begins to fall apart. Always God has to be the first priority of life. Second, learning to love others is essential to this order because when you give, people give back to you and that keeps this perpetual cycle of uplifting momentum between each other. Lastly, is yourself. Loving yourself is key to having a healthy life, but when you forget others and focus on yourself, well then problems will arise. God has designed love to be the foundation of one's life, and if you can't love others, then your life will crumble up into nothing but selfishness. When your thoughts begin to focus on yourself you begin the "tragedy of living for myself." The Chris and Conrad song "Breathe your life" defines this so beautifully. Only God can restore the person who begins to live selfishly. If right now you have unsettled the order of life, then ask the Holy Spirit to come and revitalize you into new person and to "Breathe your life in me" so that you can fulfill God's purposes in your life and in others.

A Multiple relationship

Learning is essential to life. If one doesn't know how to learn, then he can't understand how to succeed in life's tasks. To learn how to paint, requires actually painting. To learn how to drive, requires one to drive under different circumstances and in various routes. To learn how to be a better Christian, requires one to practice God's love in a variety of circumstances and opportunities. Most people would say, that as a Christian we need to throw ourselves into God and just pause, meditate, and concentrate on God. But in reality, that's not what God wants. What He wants is a deeper level of relationship with His children. And how can we do that? By acting like His children. Learning to obey Him, learning to uphold what is on His agenda. When your a child, you do what your parents do, you follow them around, you have to go places with them. That's what God wants. He wants us to talk to Him, He wants to converse with us, He wants to help us transition from infant to child. Children can be independent, they need to be able to play or interact with other children or in different environments other than home. That's what God's trying to do with His children. He wants them to follow His example, He wants to correct our mistakes, He wants us to be trained well enough so that we can play with other children (other humans) while He watches us from His chair carefully anticipating our next challenges and lessons

One of the most impressing moments of my life has been forming my heart into a God glorifying tool. As a human we usually make our hearts our own and because we begin to struggle with letting go of our issues, pain, and happiness creating a constant struggle trying to make ourselves happy when in reality, God has provided everything. God has always promised to take care of His children and to provide good things for them whenever they need them. That doesn't mean life will be easy or happy, but does mean that you can have assurance that your life is valued and you are being uplifted to a higher purpose. Sometimes as humans we create our own dreams and aspirations and when we do that, we forget that God has bigger dreams and aspirations for us. If our moments of pain and insecurity, God isn't abandoning us, He's working in us, creating a stronger desire to seek Him in everything. Just like Jesus on the cross. Jesus cried out to God, but God did not answer. But while He lay on the cross in pain, God was working something bigger; He was creating a new hope for all humanity through the pain of one man. That's how He is in our lives. Those moments of heartbreak, sadness, pain...they are the beginning of a stronger desire for God, a new hunger not for good, but for an encounter, a community, and spiritual restoration. The book of Ruth explains this very well. Naomi was a married woman with two sons when she left her hometown. When she returned she was bitter accompanied only by a daughter-in-law. Her husband gone, her sons gone, her life was no longer what she wanted. However, she kept her faith in God, and encouraged her daughter-in-law, Ruth, and her story ends quite differently.
After Boaz marries Ruth, Ruth bears a son and this is what the Bible says,

"The women said to Naomi: 'Praise be to the LORD, who this day has not left you without a kinsman-redeemer. May he become famous throughout Israel! He will renew your life and sustain you in your old age. For your daughter-in-law, who loves you and who is better to you than seven sons, has given him birth.' Then Naomi took the child, laid him in her lap and cared for him. The women living there said, 'Naomi has a son.' And they named him Obed. He was the father of Jesse, the father of David."

Even though Naomi was not related to Obed by blood, she still cared for the boy and loved him like it was her own grandchild. Through her encounter with pain, Naomi was able to restore herself in God's community and even able to be a spiritual blessing to others for the rest of her days. This is what I have found has happened in my life. I have seen that through my pain, God has created a new heart, a new mindset, a new hope that is restoring me back to His people, and even allowing me to minister in ways I hadn't imagined yet. It literally brings me to tears, to think that this entire time while I felt that God was entirely working some crazy madness with me, that I was angry with Him for taking my peace, my hope, and my happiness at times. This entire time.....He was actually restoring my soul, shaping it into a caring and compassionate heart. My goal now is not happiness, emotional feelings of joy, but a spirit that sees the hurting and the weak. Brandon Heath puts it perfectly....

"Give me Your eyes for just one second
Give me Your eyes so I can see
Everything that I keep missing
Give me Your love for humanity

Give me Your arms for the broken hearted
The ones that are far beyond my reach?
Give me Your heart for the one's forgotten
Give me Your eyes so I can see"

Give me Your eyes God, give me Your love for humanity. Help mine unbelief so that I can minister to those who need spiritual healing. That is my prayer now.