Tuesday, April 11, 2017

Voice of Truth

1 John 4:18
Amplified Bible

18 There is no fear in love [dread does not exist]. But perfect (complete, full-grown) love drives out fear, because fear involves [the expectation of divine] punishment, so the one who is afraid [of God’s judgment] is not perfected in love [has not grown into a sufficient understanding of God’s love].

I am going to try to keep it short and simple.  We all grow up hearing a lot of voices.  Whether it be parental, religious, or of the world - we hear them all.  Some are good, some are not.  But altogether, they form the things we listen to in our own heads. 

As we become adults, sometimes it is hard to sort through all the voices and hear truth. 

The truth is, God is love.  The truth is He is full of mercy.  The truth is He is kind.  The truth is He looks at us differently than we look at ourselves.  The truth is He looks at us differently then the person next to us.  The truth is if we are living in fear of people, God, etc., then we do not understand God's love for us. 

Listen to the voice of truth.  Turn it up and let it drown out all the other voices.

Monday, April 3, 2017

Stay on the Path

Proverbs 3:5-6
New Living Translation

Trust in the Lord with all your heart;
    do not depend on your own understanding.
Seek his will in all you do,
    and he will show you which path to take.
 
Another passage of Scripture that most of us know by heart.  To the point where we spout it off like it's so easy to do.  Like there's no need to worry about a thing, because God is going to direct our path...
 
Well, I can't speak for anyone else, although most who read this post will most likely relate - it's not easy.  Even as we trust in God and submit to His will...the "path" of life can have a lot of bumps, ruts, weeds, blind corners, boulders, and any other description of things that makes it hard to traverse. 
 
In meditating on this a little, I realized that when I have thought about how I try to follow the advice of these scriptures, I kind of make the assumption that it's going to make my life easier, and the obstacles smaller.  Then I thought about how that does not always seem to happen, I still face the obstacles and things that seem to hinder my progress - even though I am trusting God with my life!  What?
 
Then God reminded me of how my own personal growth has almost always come out of the hard times in life.  Aren't those the times we hit our knees and draw closer to God?  So, when we are traveling our path, the one shown to us by God, and it's bumpy and rough, and we wonder if we can make it though - don't try to find the easier way - find God, and let him draw you closer.  If we do that, that is when the growth in ourselves happens, and the boulders become pebbles, the weeds bloom, and the blind corners get straightened out.