Okay God, you gave me this word. Circumstances. Whose circumstances? Mine? Jim's? Rexanna's? Whose?
This was what I was questioning the other day. This specific word had been on my mind for about 2 weeks. I could not, for the life of me, figure out why God would give me this word. So I went to my handy-dandy www.blueletterbible.com to look up that particular word... Not in King James Version, Not in the NKJV. It appears 8 times in the NIV. Really??? It is found in I Thes. 5. It says in there, beginning with verse 11 through verse 22: Therefore encourage one another and build each other up, just as in fact you are doing. Now we ask you, brothers, to respect those who work hard among you, who are over you in the Lord and who admonish you. Hold them in the highest regard in love because of their work. Live in peace with each other. And we urge you, brothers, warm those who are idle, encourage the timid, help the weak, be patient with everyone. Make sure that nobody pays back wrong for wrong, but always try to be kind to each other and to everyone else. Be joyful always; pray continually; give thanks in all circumstances, for this is God's will for you in Christ Jesus. Do not put out the Spirit's fire; do not treat prophecies with contempt. Test everything. Hold on to the good. Avoid every kind of evil.
Reading this, I felt compelled to assess my own behavior as of late. It certainly could have been better, and I quickly asked for forgiveness and am working on repenting as I type this. I also felt the need to look up the work self-controlled, which was in I Thes. 5:6. It also appears in Proverbs 25:28, Gal 5:23, 2 Tim 3:3, and 2 Peter 1:6. It sure caught my attention.
Proverbs refers to a lack of self-control as a city wall being broken down. Have you ever felt "broken down"? Give that a moment of thought. I want to be building myself up in Christ, ever learning, ever growing. Not going backwards. Not "breaking down". I don't even want to feel "cracked" so to speak. I want to be whole in my Jesus's loving arms! Amen!
We have probably all heard about the fruit of the Spirit in Galatians. Keeping the fruit of the Spirit is fun, fulfilling and most assuredly a good thing. It says against such things, there is no law. Can you be self-controlled? I have found it is hard, especially when my old foe, stress, rears his ugly head. Then I lose most of my fruit. You know the ones I'm talking about: Love, joy, peace, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and especially self-control. Have you ever felt that way? There is a way back. Prayer. Get back in the will of God. It doesn't mean there won't be consequences for your actions, but God will be with you every step of the way.
2 Timothy 3 talks about the last days and how people will be acting. This is scary folks! People are out there acting this way now! It says to have nothing to do with them. Really????? Again, really???? I catch myself "without self-control" at times. That is the time when most people don't really want to be around me. Maybe this is why. Then God will send a wonderful soul to help guide me out. Are you the "wonderful soul" in this situation, or the one lacking self-control? Another bit of food for thought.
Last, but not least, 2 Peter 1 gives us the qualities needed to keep us from being ineffective and unproductive in our knowledge of Jesus, otherwise we are like the blind. It says we are to make every effort to add to your faith goodness, and to goodness knowledge, and to knowledge self-control, and to self-control perseverance, and to perseverance godliness, and to godliness brotherly kindness, and to brotherly kindness, love.
So, I probably should have titled this blog "Self-Control", but it is our self-control that will dictate most of our circumstances. It is our self-control that will dictate how we handle any cirumstance that we fall into.
Dear God, please help me and those who read this with their self-control. Help us to grow in our awareness and knowledge of you. Help us to be conscious of the circumstances we are in, and how we will respond. Please forgive us where we fail you. Love us, lead us, guide us, direct us in everything we say and do.
Oh, and Lord, thank you for the blessing of the AWANA kids who worked so hard last night to say all of those verses, and for the health of my husband, and for my supportive and gracious parents, and for a daughter that is smart as a whip, but knows she still has more to learn. I know there is more, but I'm not sure how much room I have on here.
Thank you,
Amen!
