Psalm 42:3 "My tears have been my food day and night, While they say to me all day long, "Where is your God?"
Ruth 1:9 ""May the LORD grant that you may find rest, each in the house of her husband." Then she kissed them, and they lifted up their voices and wept."
2 Kings 8:11 "He fixed his gaze steadily on him until he was ashamed, and the man of God wept."
2 Kings 20:3 ""Remember now, O LORD, I beseech You, how I have walked before You in truth and with a whole heart and have done what is good in Your sight " And Hezekiah wept bitterly."
Job 16:16 ""My face is flushed from weeping, And deep darkness is on my eyelids,"
Psalm 56:8 "You have taken account of my wanderings; Put my tears in Your bottle Are they not in Your book?"
Jeremiah was called the "weeping prophet", because he was so grieved over what he knew God was going to do in response to sin in the land. He preached and preached only to have the people ignore him.
I have noticed when I have been deeply distressed by this world and the cares of life seemed to much, that crying tears and out to God, brought tremendous relief. Circumstances didn't change often, but the emotional pain of them left when I prayed and wept.
God created crying, do it without shame or apology!
Sunday, July 12, 2015
Focus and Pray!
2 Corinthians 7:8
"For though I made you sorry with a letter, I do not repent, though I did repent: for I perceive that the same epistle hath made you sorry, though it were but for a season."
Next time we are tempted to be angry because someone corrected or instructed us, perhaps we should remember that:
Romans 8:28 "28 And we know that all things work together for good to them that love God, to them who are the called according to his purpose."
Perhaps the person who attempted to speak truth to us, was actually showing love, God's kind of love.
If that person said it in a way we didn't like, then it was still God attempting to get our attention. Stop focusing on the delivery and pray about the words that were said.
"For though I made you sorry with a letter, I do not repent, though I did repent: for I perceive that the same epistle hath made you sorry, though it were but for a season."
Next time we are tempted to be angry because someone corrected or instructed us, perhaps we should remember that:
Romans 8:28 "28 And we know that all things work together for good to them that love God, to them who are the called according to his purpose."
Perhaps the person who attempted to speak truth to us, was actually showing love, God's kind of love.
If that person said it in a way we didn't like, then it was still God attempting to get our attention. Stop focusing on the delivery and pray about the words that were said.
A True Friendship is Wonderful!
Never submit to a narcissist, their manipulation is not love and the pretend love is certainly not reciprocal. Of course as believers we don't do things for people to get anything back, however a true friendship is a give and take relationship. Those who want to use us while having no desire to encourage us in the Lord, will bring nothing but havoc and ruin to our lives.
As believers our friendships are based on mutual help, counsel and concern for one another in Christ.
Philippians 2:1-5 "1 If there be therefore any consolation in Christ, if any comfort of love, if any fellowship of the Spirit, if any bowels and mercies,
2 Fulfil ye my joy, that ye be like minded, having the same love, being of one accord, of one mind.
3 Let nothing be done through strife or vainglory; but in lowliness of mind let each esteem other better than themselves.
4 Look not every man on his own things, but every man also on the things of others.
5 Let this mind be in you, which was also in Christ Jesus:"
When there is an attitude of superiority demonstrated in a friendship, it becomes a parent/child relationships not based on equality but rather based on one person continually seeking to be controller of the friendship activities, even perspectives, in essence devaluing the person who is deemed to be inferior. The slightest wart or flaw in the friend will be blown out of proportion even to the point of continual and intense degradation, maligning of a reputation while embellishing events.
The very nature of a friendship disallows the use of manipulation, coercion and covert intimidation to achieve a personal goal. There is no malice in a true friendship only deep love, concern and empathy. One is not required to be "perfect" in a true friendship. The depth of love will transcend difficulties with the hope of helping to work all things out together, in Christ!
John 15:12-15 “This is my commandment, that you love one another as I have loved you. Greater love has no one than this, that someone lay down his life for his friends. You are my friends if you do what I command you. No longer do I call you servants, for the servant does not know what his master is doing; but I have called you friends, for all that I have heard from my Father I have made known to you."
God told us to love as He loved. How did God love? He loved by sending His Son to die for others. No friendship can be close unless both parties are willing to extend themselves when it is not always comfortable to do so, when it may be inconvenient. A true friend demonstrates concern and empathy while desiring to understand things they may not understand.
A true friendship will assume the best when they see something that they question, but go even further than assuming the best, they ask their friend to explain what they saw, to be able to be an encouragement in time of difficulty.
If a true friend knows their dear one is in sin, they confront it with the desire to help restore their friend to Christlikeness. They do this through prayer and encouragement to forsake their sin.
Proverbs 27:6 "Faithful are the wounds of a friend; but the kisses of an enemy are deceitful."
Assuming evil when we don't have the whole story show pettiness and even jealousy, a propensity to embrace gossip, enjoying the possibility of sin in the one for which we have contempt. No friendship can withstand the pitfalls of narcissistic selfishness. No relationships can hold up under constant criticism for no other reason than self aggrandizement.
Proverbs 18:24 "24 A man of many companions may come to ruin, but there is a friend who sticks closer than a brother."
When we see that the friendship is based on nothing other than one party controlling and manipulating the other, then it is time to exit the relationship, moving on to healthier ones that glorify God. God can take care of the pitiful narcissist in His own way. Narcissists do not listen and almost always fight and argue to silence those who would try to help them. In 2 Timothy 3 we are told to remove ourselves from these people, only God can reach them.
2 Timothy 3:1-7
As believers our friendships are based on mutual help, counsel and concern for one another in Christ.
Philippians 2:1-5 "1 If there be therefore any consolation in Christ, if any comfort of love, if any fellowship of the Spirit, if any bowels and mercies,
2 Fulfil ye my joy, that ye be like minded, having the same love, being of one accord, of one mind.
3 Let nothing be done through strife or vainglory; but in lowliness of mind let each esteem other better than themselves.
4 Look not every man on his own things, but every man also on the things of others.
5 Let this mind be in you, which was also in Christ Jesus:"
When there is an attitude of superiority demonstrated in a friendship, it becomes a parent/child relationships not based on equality but rather based on one person continually seeking to be controller of the friendship activities, even perspectives, in essence devaluing the person who is deemed to be inferior. The slightest wart or flaw in the friend will be blown out of proportion even to the point of continual and intense degradation, maligning of a reputation while embellishing events.
The very nature of a friendship disallows the use of manipulation, coercion and covert intimidation to achieve a personal goal. There is no malice in a true friendship only deep love, concern and empathy. One is not required to be "perfect" in a true friendship. The depth of love will transcend difficulties with the hope of helping to work all things out together, in Christ!
John 15:12-15 “This is my commandment, that you love one another as I have loved you. Greater love has no one than this, that someone lay down his life for his friends. You are my friends if you do what I command you. No longer do I call you servants, for the servant does not know what his master is doing; but I have called you friends, for all that I have heard from my Father I have made known to you."
God told us to love as He loved. How did God love? He loved by sending His Son to die for others. No friendship can be close unless both parties are willing to extend themselves when it is not always comfortable to do so, when it may be inconvenient. A true friend demonstrates concern and empathy while desiring to understand things they may not understand.
A true friendship will assume the best when they see something that they question, but go even further than assuming the best, they ask their friend to explain what they saw, to be able to be an encouragement in time of difficulty.
If a true friend knows their dear one is in sin, they confront it with the desire to help restore their friend to Christlikeness. They do this through prayer and encouragement to forsake their sin.
Proverbs 27:6 "Faithful are the wounds of a friend; but the kisses of an enemy are deceitful."
Assuming evil when we don't have the whole story show pettiness and even jealousy, a propensity to embrace gossip, enjoying the possibility of sin in the one for which we have contempt. No friendship can withstand the pitfalls of narcissistic selfishness. No relationships can hold up under constant criticism for no other reason than self aggrandizement.
Proverbs 18:24 "24 A man of many companions may come to ruin, but there is a friend who sticks closer than a brother."
When we see that the friendship is based on nothing other than one party controlling and manipulating the other, then it is time to exit the relationship, moving on to healthier ones that glorify God. God can take care of the pitiful narcissist in His own way. Narcissists do not listen and almost always fight and argue to silence those who would try to help them. In 2 Timothy 3 we are told to remove ourselves from these people, only God can reach them.
2 Timothy 3:1-7
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