We live our lives day by day, week by week, month by month, year by year and we have our memories of how we've lived. No, we don't have memories of every single day or our lives- at least most of us don't. We don't even have memories of every month and sadly not every year. We have memories of events and situations that take place during our lives that affect us in profound ways- either for our good or to our detriment. Right now you can probably recall past happy events as well as past tragic events. You can recall past charity and past sins.
What we can't know is our future.
We can plan events, plan our next day but we never quite know how it's going to turn out. I may know I'll be doing laundry, cleaning the bathroom, cooking dinner, going to the store, and I may know I'll be interacting with my husband, my children, and various strangers I'll meet at along the way, but I have no clue about any of the details of those interactions. I don't know what words I'll speak, I don't know what emotions will be taking place between us.
What I do know is that I will CHOOSE how I behave.
No, I'm not perfect by any means and I know that there are a lot of things that influence my emotions and those emotions influence my interactions. I understand what it's like to have my behavior affected by feeling under the weather and it's easy to use that as an excuse for poor behavior. It's hard to be loving- long suffering, kind, generous, caring- when you aren't feeling well. We are called to be loving- always- and we fail constantly.
In the spur of the moment our behavior can change. We may start out with the intention of everything being loving and the next moment we find our anger firing up, our long suffering turning to very short suffering, our turning the other cheek to wanting to lash out.
It is Satan's pleasure to get us to succumb to our UNLOVING side. Satan enjoys getting us all riled up so that we show very little love. Satan knows that if he can get us to be unloving we are NOT living the life our Savior desires us to live.
We ARE to live a certain way and ANYONE who believes otherwise just hasn't read their Bible.
We ARE told how to behave. We ARE told what the qualities are of a person striving to live as Christ would have them live. We have so much information so we KNOW when our behavior is acceptable and when it isn't. We know when we are being loving and when we are not being loving and any time we are NOT loving we are sinning.
Any time we are sinning we need to ask for forgiveness and Satan does NOT want us asking for forgiveness! Satan would much rather have us making excuses for ourselves than face up to the truth. We are helpless without our God. We are constant sinners and our ONLY hope is CHRIST and HIS RIGHTEOUSNESS!
Christ knew how hard it would be for us to love, but He did NOT tell us that it would be okay not to love.
I know I've probably used the following verses hundreds of times in my various blogs but it is so incredibly relevant.
Rom 7:24 O wretched man that I am! who shall deliver me from the body of this death?
Rom 7:25 I thank God through Jesus Christ our Lord.
We are delivered ONLY by JESUS CHRIST OUR LORD and we MUST THANK GOD FOR HIM!
We cannot SAVE ourselves this is a fact. What is also a fact is that we cannot decide NOT to love as God would have us love simply because we know we will fall short of the mark. We have to strive, we have to examine and prove ourselves, we have to do ALL we are ABLE to do and TRUST our SAVIOR to do all that we cannot do. HE will put HIS righteousness in for ours. He will NOT put HIS righteousness in for ours if we are willful sinners, sinning without any care in the world. If we will not strive, if we will not shoot for the mark, if we will not run the race, if we will not examine or prove ourselves, if we choose to rest on our laurels, we are NOT following the will of our God, we are NOT loving GOD.
LOVE.
You know as a parent- or if you've not been a parent you can imagine or relate this another way- but you know as a parent that when you ask your child to do a task you know will be difficult for them that there is a very good possibility that your child might not be able to complete the task. You also know that if it's a task that MUST be finished that you will have to step in and help out or even take over completely. You do NOT fault your child when they do all they can do. You understand they have limitations. God KNOWS our limitations. God KNOWS that we cannot save ourselves. God KNOWS that all our striving, racing, examining, proving of ourselves will NOT SAVE us. God also knows that in all that striving, racing, and so on that we are doing His will to the best of our ability to love as He commands us to love. We have to have FAITH that our HEAVENLY FATHER will do all He promises. He will SAVE US. He will do all that we CANNOT do.
We must love, we must listen to our God, not Satan who will do everything he can to keep us from loving or even desiring to love in the least little way.
Please God bless us! Help us! Save us! Love us! All through YOUR SON!
Please LORD, all in YOU!
What we can't know is our future.
We can plan events, plan our next day but we never quite know how it's going to turn out. I may know I'll be doing laundry, cleaning the bathroom, cooking dinner, going to the store, and I may know I'll be interacting with my husband, my children, and various strangers I'll meet at along the way, but I have no clue about any of the details of those interactions. I don't know what words I'll speak, I don't know what emotions will be taking place between us.
What I do know is that I will CHOOSE how I behave.
No, I'm not perfect by any means and I know that there are a lot of things that influence my emotions and those emotions influence my interactions. I understand what it's like to have my behavior affected by feeling under the weather and it's easy to use that as an excuse for poor behavior. It's hard to be loving- long suffering, kind, generous, caring- when you aren't feeling well. We are called to be loving- always- and we fail constantly.
In the spur of the moment our behavior can change. We may start out with the intention of everything being loving and the next moment we find our anger firing up, our long suffering turning to very short suffering, our turning the other cheek to wanting to lash out.
It is Satan's pleasure to get us to succumb to our UNLOVING side. Satan enjoys getting us all riled up so that we show very little love. Satan knows that if he can get us to be unloving we are NOT living the life our Savior desires us to live.
We ARE to live a certain way and ANYONE who believes otherwise just hasn't read their Bible.
We ARE told how to behave. We ARE told what the qualities are of a person striving to live as Christ would have them live. We have so much information so we KNOW when our behavior is acceptable and when it isn't. We know when we are being loving and when we are not being loving and any time we are NOT loving we are sinning.
Any time we are sinning we need to ask for forgiveness and Satan does NOT want us asking for forgiveness! Satan would much rather have us making excuses for ourselves than face up to the truth. We are helpless without our God. We are constant sinners and our ONLY hope is CHRIST and HIS RIGHTEOUSNESS!
Christ knew how hard it would be for us to love, but He did NOT tell us that it would be okay not to love.
I know I've probably used the following verses hundreds of times in my various blogs but it is so incredibly relevant.
Rom 7:24 O wretched man that I am! who shall deliver me from the body of this death?
Rom 7:25 I thank God through Jesus Christ our Lord.
We are delivered ONLY by JESUS CHRIST OUR LORD and we MUST THANK GOD FOR HIM!
We cannot SAVE ourselves this is a fact. What is also a fact is that we cannot decide NOT to love as God would have us love simply because we know we will fall short of the mark. We have to strive, we have to examine and prove ourselves, we have to do ALL we are ABLE to do and TRUST our SAVIOR to do all that we cannot do. HE will put HIS righteousness in for ours. He will NOT put HIS righteousness in for ours if we are willful sinners, sinning without any care in the world. If we will not strive, if we will not shoot for the mark, if we will not run the race, if we will not examine or prove ourselves, if we choose to rest on our laurels, we are NOT following the will of our God, we are NOT loving GOD.
LOVE.
You know as a parent- or if you've not been a parent you can imagine or relate this another way- but you know as a parent that when you ask your child to do a task you know will be difficult for them that there is a very good possibility that your child might not be able to complete the task. You also know that if it's a task that MUST be finished that you will have to step in and help out or even take over completely. You do NOT fault your child when they do all they can do. You understand they have limitations. God KNOWS our limitations. God KNOWS that we cannot save ourselves. God KNOWS that all our striving, racing, examining, proving of ourselves will NOT SAVE us. God also knows that in all that striving, racing, and so on that we are doing His will to the best of our ability to love as He commands us to love. We have to have FAITH that our HEAVENLY FATHER will do all He promises. He will SAVE US. He will do all that we CANNOT do.
We must love, we must listen to our God, not Satan who will do everything he can to keep us from loving or even desiring to love in the least little way.
Please God bless us! Help us! Save us! Love us! All through YOUR SON!
Please LORD, all in YOU!
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