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Thankful to God in all things
Michael:
Hello Rhys,
I can't say I'm too thankful for the trials that come my way. At least not right away. Like you and Greg and many others I'm sure, in retrospect I can see where trials and troubles where a good thing that turned me around and back on course or kept me out of continued trouble. Other trials or tribulations...... I still have no clue as to the benefit of them. Not yet anyway.
I wonder to myself if this cannot be some sort of guidepost. The quicker I can give thanks in times of trial, great and small, the closer I am ......maybe that's not how I should look at it. I don't know.
More recently, when big trials happen, I don't complain, I ask God, (admittedly, sometimes with a *sigh*), "Now what?". Not quite thanking and rejoicing, but I think I'm headed the right way. Of course the answer to , 'Now What?", may take some time to come. Hard to continually be thankful when it looks like your world is collapsing around you. At least we know who to run to at that point........(Full circle?).
1 Thessalonians 5:18
give thanks in all circumstances; for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you.
If it's His will for us to 'give thanks in all things', then it will happen, eventually.
Anyway, I do understand Rays thoughts on this. If persecution, trials and tribulations will help, "qualify us for His kingdom", then, 'bring them on so I can qualify quicker'. I suppose it would be easier to do that if we could see ourselves in the process of qualifying , right then and there. Being a builder of things, the building process can get quite messy and disorganized and though not complete, I know what the end result will be and can deal with the temporary mess. I can't say I have that in the spiritual sense. Perhaps the more spiritual we become, the more we can see the end result and the easier it will be to deal with our temporary mess?....not to mention the, 'this is going to be great when finished', hope for the future.
Ramble, ramble, ramble. Not much help other than to say, you've got company on this trip.
Extol,
I'm sort of in the same boat as you, the worry and the fear when life seems, ok. Not a good place to be.
Though I may not be well off, I'm more well off than a lot of folks out there so there is the, 'success guilt', hanging over me. 'Why am I ok while others are miserable?'. 'Does my getting by ok now mean that my rewards are now and not in the future?" Drives me crazy sometimes.
In one of Rays papers he talks about the 7 falls that we each need to go through, or something like that. I've only had 3 or 4 which means I'm looking at 3 or 4 more...? Ugg. Hard to be thinking worry and fear free when there may be more big trials on the way. (I may have misinterpreted what Ray was saying but I'm pretty sure that was the gist of it). I'm going to to go find that again and read it a few more times to see what he meant. Perhaps it was spiritual falls, perhaps carnal, not that knowing which will make it any easier. I'm not sure now.
John 14:27
"Peace I leave with you; My peace I give to you; not as the world gives do I give to you. Do not let your heart be troubled, nor let it be fearful.
So there we go. Sounds simple right?
It's all a process, and it can take time.
Michael
By the way, I don't surf, but dig surf music.
Couple of classics
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qJmI6fAPUSk
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tqC3BjIyq_0
Rhys 🕊:
Thanks Michael. I seem to be in a very similar situation as you are so is quite helpful to me to read what you have shared.
I like this verse to - Col 2:7
having been rooted and being built up in Him, and being confirmed in the faith according as you were taught, superabounding in it with thanksgiving.
I like the fact of not only being rooted in Him but also built up.
Maybe as I come to realise that more I too will be superabounding in it with thanksgiving.
Was the 7 falls from The Lake of Fire - PART VI - The life of the believer. If not let me know, would like to have a read myself.
Cool surf music by the way. Perhaps I don't need to take up surfing now just listen to the music (I can feel those cool vibes already working man!)
Rhys
Michael:
LOF 13
http://bible-truths.com/lake13.html
OK. I see. Ray was talking about the, 'Falling away', and pointed out a proverb that mentioned man will fall 7 times,
THERE MUST COME A ‘FALLING AWAY’ FIRST
I have shown you that John, Paul, Peter, ALL of the apostles, the whole church in Asia, the Seven Churches of Revelation, the entire flock of God’s called, all built their houses upon spiritual sand—in other words EVERYONE ever called by God, falls, falls down, falls away.
The Proverb tells us that, "For a just man falls seven times…" That’s a COMPLETE fall. But strange as it may seem, this is necessary in God’s plan. What happens to a just man after he falls seven times? "…and RISES UP AGAIN" (Prov. 24:16). When he completely falls, he falls from grace. But for those whom God is both calling AND choosing, they will RISE UP AGAIN, for
"Who are you that judges another man’s servant? To his own master he stands or falls. Yes, he shall be holden up [made to stand up]: for God is able to MAKE HIM STAND" (Rom. 14:4).
My take now is that it's not mentioning a total of 7 separate falls, though it sure reads like that, but rather, the 'seven' is the number of completeness of a fall or of a cumulative fall.
This would be a spiritual fall.
Here's the Proverb,
15 Lie not in wait as a wicked man against the dwelling of the righteous;
do no violence to his home;
16 for the righteous falls seven times and rises again,
but the wicked stumble in times of calamity.
Michael
eskimojerry:
My last two years have been like "C'mon, get me outta this 'sermon on the mount' prison" already. And than I think to myselft, "the more will be better for me, bring it on". And I cry and pray,...but, God is nowhere to be found, but my whole being knows that He is everywhere and is for me. And yet, I can't wait to get out of this prison.
"put me back in the matrix" than the next second, I can't explain it but it's like "don't ever put me anywhere else, this is the best place for me now", the waves calm down, the world gets beautiful again and I forget my sorrows and look forward to a day.
And my hope is renewed, day after day.
Rhys 🕊:
Hi Jerry
I get what you mean about the prison. Here's a good thread from a couple of years ago
http://forums.bible-truths.com/index.php/topic,11231.msg97094.html#msg97094
I believe that if anyone is not Spiritually minded and doing the things of God in a way which is consistent with the Truths of the Spirit,then,to me at least, that would be a prison of the heart and mind[a carnal way of thinking]. Of course the only One with the key to freedom from that prison is Jesus the Christ.
John 8;32 And ye shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free.
John 8;36 If the Son therefore shall make you free, ye shall be free indeed.
Rhys
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