Scripture's Truth or Life's Experiences

How much of what you allow yourself to do and believe is governed by the abuses you have seen rather than the scripture that you read. Are you motivated largely by your disdain for the ugliness of what others have done, or by the beauty of what Christ has commanded?

We have negative experiences, we see abuses, we commit abuses and we decide out of fear and out of pain; “I will never be this way, I’ll never look like this again, and I’ll never allow it”. And then we create categories that actually isolate ourselves from believing and living in whole aspects of truth in the scriptures.

"Oh to hold onto God's truth and to keep it in my heart, that I may be steady and secure in Him. That nothing in life keep me from His truth or from His promises. That His truth overrules anything I've ever experienced, seen or done!"

Out of Darkness into His Wonderful Light

I've always wondered why it's so hard for me (and others, I'm sure) to believe God's truth. How you can know a truth, but yet still choose to embrace a lie with all its terrible emotion.

This is something I'm going to be wondering about for a while, I think, as possibly each persons circumstance is different. But there are a few truths that won't change from person to person.

• God loves you, the way you are, the way you were and the way you'll be in the future.
• God sent His son to die for you.
• God forgives you totally.
• You don't need to earn your salvation.
• God doesn't punish you, He disciplines you.

They sound simple don't they?! Yet we manage to not believe them.

One reason people, myself included, have difficulty embracing the truth is because of a lie that has been so embedded and part of their life, that the original memory wound keeps them from appropriating the truth they need. If all that is keeping a lie in check is skills in communication, controlled behaviour, daily mantras or battles in your mind; it will be a very tiring existence.

I believe Christ has come to set us free to move beyond merely atolerable existence.

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Galations 5:1 It is for freedom that Christ has set us free.

The difference between Godly Goals and Godly Desires

What is a Godly goal and what is a Godly desire.

A goal is something that nobody can get in the way of, it's between you and God. A desire is something that can be blocked or deterred. It's between you, God, circumstances or people. For example; a Godly desire is to be married. But that desire can't be my goal, as it can be blocked by circumstances or the lack of a man in your life. In this case however, a Godly goal could be to be the woman God wants me to be while I wait for my husband, and desire marriage in the process. But marriage can never become my goal.

When feeling anxious in a task or a relationship, your anxiety may be signalling the uncertainty of a goal you have chosen. You are hoping something will happen, but you have no guarantee that it will. You don't have any control. Depression also often signals that you are desperatelyj clinging to a goal you have little or no chance of achieving. And that is not a healthy goal.

When a persons selfworth or sucess hinges on the achievement of a goal which can be blocked or which is uncertain or impossible, how will he or she respond to those who frustrate his goals? Often he will attempt to control or manipulate hte people or circumstances who stand between him and his sucess.

You've got to believe that no goal God has for your life can be blocked. The secret to achieving God's goals is learning to distinguish a Godly goal from a Godly desire. This distinction can mean the difference between success and failure, inner peace and inner pain for the Christian.

Another example; to desire a promotion at work is fine, but to make the promotion your goal, will cause frustration and pain when it is not achieved. Rather make it a Godly goal to be the best employee God would have you be, and if your desire for promotion is achieved in the process of reaching your Godly goal, that is wonderful, but it's not the aim.

When a desire is wrongly elevated to a goal, and that goal is frustrated, you must deal with all the anger, anxiety and depression which may accompany that failure.

God's basic goal for our lives: Become the person He wants me to be , Christ-like.
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"Perhaps the greatest service performed by trials and tribulations in our lives is to reveal wrong goals." Niel T Anderson

It all started...

It all started about 6 weeks ago, this process that God has taken me on.

I've recently learnt that when it feels like your world has come crashing down around you; it's not always a bad thing. It allows God an opportunity to come along and build it up again, it gives him the chance to throw away the rubbish bricks I had used in my foundation, to crush the broken bricks that had been there from my past and put solid bricks in there place. It allows Him the chance to finish the work He started and cover me in a new paint, a shiny paint.

So the next few entries over the next few days and weeks are truths and revelations God has opened my eyes to these last few weeks. And I'm trusting Him to complete the good work He has started. To take me from strength to strength.
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James 1:2-4

²Consider it pure joy, my brothers, whenever you face trials of many kinds, ³because you know that the testing of your faith develops perseverance. ⁴Perseverance must finish its work so that you may be mature and complete, not lacking anything.