Be Joyous

So this is kind of a continuation of the last post. I have really seen what I wrote about before become more and more true in my life. The more I fight back against the crap that Satan and the world are throwing at me, the more I feel the pain and the more of a struggle it is. Not giving up though and here is why. There is a verse that comes to mind immediately off the top of my head in James, actually right at the beginning of the book directly after his greeting to his audience, which is the twelve tribes...

"Count it all joy, my brothers, when you meet trials of various kinds, for you know that the testing of your faith produces steadfastness. And let steadfastness have its full effect, that you may be perfect and complete, lacking in nothing." James 1:2-4

Wow. What is God saying to us here through James? Well, he is saying that first of all, we are going to face trials. It is unavoidable and just part of life. It is going to happen and we should not fool ourselves otherwise. Get ready. Secondly, this is saying that we aren't supposed to just be like "well, this sucks, but I guess it is for the best. Blah." Pause. I have been doing this as of late. I know God has a plan, I do and I trust in it. However, I am honestly tired of facing trials and temptations and depressing circumstances. OK play. What this is actually telling us is that we are actually supposed to be JOYOUS about facing trials and hardships and things that are not fun. Wait what? Really? That can't be right.....but it is. Again though, don't stop reading there. WHY are we supposed to be joyous? We are not called to just be happy that things are hard. That doesn't make sense, but when you read it all, it does. We are called to find it all joy, because through those trials and hard times, we are going to be made complete and whole and perfect (oh hey sanctification, I didn't realize that was you again.) This is God's grace through sanctification AGAIN. Good news for us all.

So the verse is saying, "Hey, things are going to be hard, often. However, its ok, its actually good, because I, God, the King of all things, am going to make you perfect and holy and lacking nothing in the process. Cheer up and check out how cool I am."

Here is some more scripture to ponder...and we will stay in James. He seems to have a good idea about this temptation/struggle/trial stuff.

"Blessed is the man who remains steadfast under trial, for when he has stood the test he will receive the crown of life, which God has promised to those who love him. Let no one say when he is tempted 'I am being tempted by God,' for God cannot be tempted with evil and he himself tempts no one. But each person is tempted when he is lured and enticed by his own desire. Then desire, when it has conceived gives birth to sin, and sin when it has fully grown brings forth death." James 1:12-15

Ok, so pretty much we already established this stuff, but it is good to see it in scripture and verified so we know its not just something that we concocted in our minds. So when we face trials, we are blessed when we remain steadfast and still keep our eyes to the heavens rather than shifting our focus to worldly things aka IDOLS. Also, NO ONE, I repeat, NO ONE has ever been tempted by God. That is Satan's claim to fame. He uses worldly things, or evil things, or even seemingly good things, to tempt us away from the blessings of God. These things become desires of ours or are even previously good desires that we had, that have been corrupted by sin. Now I will bring it back....RELATIONSHIPS. Boom, I said it. This is obviously what is going on with me and I know for a fact that it is something that at least 74.79% of you all struggle with as well.

Relationships are a good thing. They are. God made us to be in relationship both with him AND with each other (Gen. 2). However, Satan uses that desire for companionship and to be with someone to corrupt our minds and take our focus away from the relationship with God. Now its not good. Because now we are worshiping relationships with people instead of God and that is not good at all. Thats what we do though. Not intentionally, but we do it. And thats what sucks about that jerk Satan, he is sneaky and doesn't let us realize what he has done until we are already idolizing something else.

Don't confuse what I am saying here. Remember, relationships = good. Relationship being too important = bad. Keep that in mind. And thats true with EVERYTHING. Not just relationships. Food, tv, video games, friends, fixing up a car, working, following sports, playing sports, blogging, facebooking, tweeting, etc etc etc. You get the point.

It kind of feels like I have strayed away from the original point, but I promise I am still here. The point to be made here is that we have to make sure that our priorities have not been shifted away from our Father. It is when we put something else above him, that we get burned and face trials and etc. I put a girl too high on my priorities. Maybe not ahead of God, but maybe I did. I dont really know for sure. I still feel like I kept God at the top, but I know I put a lot of importance on her and I in my emotions and too much of my heart into it for the stage that we were at. Lesson learned though, but maybe that is just how I am. I am an emotional guy who puts my heart into things. It is something that we have to be careful about in life. Be wary about what you are investing your heart into and how much of your heart you are investing into things. ALWAYS BE SURE GOD IS GETTING THE TOP SPOT. It is when we lose sight of that is when Satan gets a foothold and is able to come in and mess with us. (See, told you I was still on track)

God bless you all and thank you for reading. I am open to suggestions from you all too at any point about things you would like to read about or just get my thoughts on. With those, it might take me a little longer to get a post together because I will want to research and pray about it first, but I would be happy to have suggestions from you guys. Again, thanks for reading, I love you all, and will be praying for my readers that they hear God through me, not just me talking about God.