"ponderments" from Life's little lessons for growing high and rooting deep
In our ever-changing world and transient communities, it is so difficult to feel that we ‘belong’, but let us never forget that this is not our home- for we are just passing through.
Eternity has been put in the hearts of all man and this is to confirm that we were created for more than this time and realm.
Let us not build and put down all our roots in this soil, but be aware of building where it will last for beyond our ‘dust bodies’.
If we personally value truth and honesty, we don’t want to have lies as part of our
relationships, situations or any part of our lives. But when we ask God to reveal and expose the lies in our lives- of ourselves and of those around us- it is amazing how painful and heart wrenching it can be.
I have recently come out of a situation where I didn’t know what was truth and what wasn’t and after so much pleading and seeking God about it all, when I was actually shown (and continue to be shown), it is so deeply painful that I have to make sure that I stay so close to God who is the only One able to counsel my heart that deeply.
This has shown me how staying ‘in the dark’ and ignorance can actually be more
comfortable than knowing the truth, which says a lot considering how much pain the insecurity of not knowing truth can cause to the mind, spirit, soul and relationships.
During this process it has been so painful and emotions such as anger, resentment,
pure guttedness, brokenness etc have got to be worked through so that they don’t stick around in my heart. The process to build is so much longer and energy consuming than the act of destroying. It takes only moments to trash a room but so much longer and more effort to get it back right again. And this is even more so with a human heart and spirit.
But one thing that I am grateful for is that God is with us and faithful and true and He would prefer me to go through this pain into freedom and value, rather than stay in a place that is confusing, upsetting, mentally all over the place and just slowly heart tearing. I love that He is unafraid of emotion and pain, and is with us through it all to bring us into freedom and truth more and more. He does not want us to settle for mental mind games and pain, or compromise value. He absolutely values each and every one of us and wants us to be fully unbound.
So I would really love to encourage you that if you desire truth, please do not go back to the comfort of deception when it gets painful and hard going. Keep moving towards full truth where you will find full value. To be healed is a painful process but one that we have a personal responsibility to take. If we don’t and we ignore symptoms of deception, then we will not only stay in low (or high) level pain, but we won’t be able to pave the way for those coming our way and who need help and guidance.
There is a song line that says “if you tolerate this, then your children will be next”. And this is so true. Let us take full responsibility to cut off everything that ties us so that we won’t end up being bound and impact for the worse whoever the ‘children’ are that we are raising.
This was a question that my man used to ask me. My response would be that only he knew if he was good to me, because only he knows of his faithfulness, his
heart and mind towards me. I can be aware of how he is when he’s with me, but have no idea if he is respecting me when we’re not together. I have no idea if
he is honouring and backing me up to others, or if others even know anything about me..
How often can we be like this in our relationships- all about the façade and nothing about the unseen building of commitment and respect? It is such a farce.
Let us not be like this in our Christian walk with God- looking good when our actions are ‘in front of’ Him and/or others and yet having pure selfishness and a
self-serving heart and lifestyle.
Let us remember that God cannot be mocked (even if we can be) and that He sees the deepest part of our hearts and minds and knows us completely. He
knows exactly if we “are good to Him”…
As I was walking through my local park, the path ahead of me looked like a picture of an “artist’s impression”! As I was walking along the path, I thought how God also has an “Artist’s impression” of how things should look on earth. He tells us to pray for His Kingdom and His will to be on earth as it is in Heaven- His Kingdom where there is no sickness, sin etc; a place of peace, love, community, worship.
As we read His Word, we can be fully aware of what His will is for us and our communities. And His Word is never to puff us up with knowledge, but to show us how to live and how we need to agree with Him.
Like in the natural, the picture of an artist’s impression is to show how things are expected to look, but this is only if the works goes ahead to take down the old and start to rebuild unto completion. This is not a quick fix or simple work. This takes energy, finance, different units working together- councils, builders, architects, removals…etc. And just like His Kingdom coming to earth- everyone is needed. There are different timings of when things need to be done. You can’t bring in the planning at the end of the building.. and you can’t build before taking down the old. This calls for us to respect each other and to know the times and seasons.
Let us remember that as believers in Christ, we are all on the same team and not in competition with each other.
Let us tear down, destroy and overthrow what the enemy has built, and let us build and plant the Kingdom of God on earth as it is in Heaven.
Church is His people. People make mistakes.
God is God. He does not make mistakes.
Church is where we worship and who we worship with.
God is who we worship.
Church is God’s people. Church is also a building.
We are called temples to host God (both as individuals and together).
Church is not to be worshipped.
God is to be worshipped.
It is easy to get God and Church mixed up but we would do very well not to. Jesus is our High Priest so we don’t need to have any other in the gap advocating or connecting us to God.
It is wise to have the counsel of others and there is a godly order of authority, with those who lead being heavily accountable to God, but we are all connected to the head (Christ) and that is how the body functions- every member having its own connection from the brain/head, and not from the member that it’s connected to.
I’m not rebellious but neither do I want to be institutionalised by man. God makes us free, and His Word tells us not be become bound again.
After watching a documentary film about the mafia and the fear they caused and brought over a whole city, I am even more convinced of God’s Truth and Word, and also how Kingdom principles will work for anyone who uses them.
The fear of the mob was due to “the family” being so closely intertwined but knit together with control and fear. The unity between them created strength that brought the city to chaos. They were also involved in different economies of society and had legitimate as well as illegitimate work.
They had created such an atmosphere of fear due to force, murder, intimidation and threats. They became feared.
They became the god in that city- the all-powerful and almighty one. They were worshipped by fear and sacrifice and being held in the highest respect from the people. Even though this wasn’t one of ‘freedom’.
The Bible says that God is to be feared and that this brings wisdom and life. And yet we hold so many others higher than God in fear. How about viruses, gangs, payslips (or lack of), the future, politics etc..?
The fear of the Lord is not the same as the fear of the Mob (or all those mentioned above). It does not cripple us but bring the perspective that the Lord God Almighty is higher than all others. This means that if He is being held high in reverence and honour and fear that He alone is Almighty, then we understand that He is the One that has the power to direct the hearts of kings, is able to destroy the soul not just the body, and to speak a higher word than the doctors, employers, gangs, politicians, culture..
This is the fear of the Lord that brings wisdom and long life, peace.
To fear is part of humanity and is highly exploitable which is why God always gives us the choice of a higher way of living- as long as we continue to apply His instruction. To apply His Word will always go against our basic humanity and therefore it is an ongoing relationship and connection that we need so that we do not get overwhelmed when the various voices of culture try and clamour for our attention and downfall.
To fear God, I believe that it means to hold Him in highest esteem and respect. If you read His Word (with the Spirit of God) and have a relationship with Him then you would know that He gave His only Son for all of mankind- every. single. individual. This shows that He is loving at a very personal and sacrificial cost. He is not telling us to fear Him because of ego, but because if we fear Him, then the others that compete for our fear to take us down, will not succeed.
We need our personal application of fearing God, but we also need our corporate fearing of God as Followers of Christ. The city that was brought to its knees due to the mob had corporate fear that was able to run rife through the people and streets and council. So we need to also make sure we are closely intertwined with those who are fearing God so that we can stay encouraged and with the perspective that the Lord God is Almighty and none other..
Nothing of worthwhile investment will ever come without intentional building, choosing, or cost, but it will always be worth it as the later cost (if we don’t invest) will always be higher.
When we desire something- a job, a person, a situation, a revival, whatever- there is so much work that is put in to chase this vision down and secure it. But then once it is secured and the honeymoon period is over, how many of us actually continue to fight and chase this for building on, in, and with it?
It seems that we are able to do short spurts of energy investment, but what about the long haul of investment- when it is tiring, thankless, unromantic, hard work and without much reward?
Whether we are people of faith or not, the spiritual discipline is a general principle.. if we give up we won’t reap the reward in which was the reason why we first started- whether this is for a relationship, revival, working vision etc..
Talking (and writing) is easy. But what about living it? This is where the truth of our convictions will show through and if we are actually building to last or just building to flex..
ponderments 