God will pay us back double for all our trouble according to Isaiah 61:7. Hebrews 10:30 says, "God is a just God and He will settle and solve the cases of His people". If we place our faith in God, chapter 19 of Joel Osteen's book Your Best Life Now says, "sooner or later God will bring justice into your life. Sometimes when we don't see anything happening month after month, maybe even year after year, it's tempting to become manipulative, to attempt to make things happen on our own. When we do that, we risk interfering with God's plans and purposes, creating another mess for Him to clean up, and possibly even keeping God from doing what He really wants to do in that situation." Wow! I think God is smarter than me...lol...so I believe I will just let him deal with any perceived injustice I may have incurred. Romans 12:19 says, "Never avenge yourselves, but leave the way open for [God's] wrath." Alrighty then, I'll do that, Lord.
I'm so enjoying the teaching in this book. It started with enlarging my vision and then moved on to helping me build my self-esteem. I loved the part about the power of our thoughts and words and now we are being taught to let go of our past. It's so healing, and I feel blessed to be a part of this teaching. Kim, Holly, Mark, & I had the privilege of attending "A Night of Hope" with Joel Osteen's family leading an awesome service in KC Friday night. It was such a positive, uplifting night and Joel poured out those blessings from God on us that we studied in any earlier chapter. I claim a blessing daily. Today I'm remembering that God has blessed me with fulfillment, and I feel satisfied. May God richly bless you this week as you study and blog on this chapter.
6 comments:
Friday night was great-- I had quite an interesting experience ... it's long so I will just type the link here if you want to read more about it:
http://riders4c.blogspot.com/2008/02/discernment-hope.html
(you may have to copy and paste it into your address bar)
I read your comment on your blog, Kim, and found it very insightful. Thanks for sharing. God gives us the spirit of discernment. It's awesome how God gives us what we need when we need it. I was reading through my spiritual journal of last year and found out that I was studying about letting go of the past last year at this same time!! Isn't it surprising? Here's my entry:
2-25-07 "Every experience I have gone through has taught me patience, forgiveness, tolerance, acceptance, or compassion."
God has been faithful to heal our emotional wounds, keep the root of bitterness away, and bring justice into our lives. Praise His name!
This is a story from the last chapter, but it fits well in this chapter too. God will bring justice into our lives, but we have to be willing to change course. This story tells why:
"The captain of a ship was sailing on a dark, pitch-black night when he suddenly noticed a bright light directly in front of him. He knew he was on a collision course with the light so he rushed to the radio to send an urgent message, demanding that the vessel change its course ten degrees east. A few seconds later, he received a message in return, 'Cannot do it. Change your course ten degrees west.' The captain got angry and sent another cryptic message, 'I'm a navy captain. I demand you change your course.' He received a message back a few seconds later. It said, 'I'm a seaman second class. Cannot do it. Change your course.' The captain was now furious. He sent one final message. It said, 'I'm a battleship, and I'm not changing my course!' He got a curt message in return. It said, 'I'm a lighthouse. It's your choice, sir.'"
I find it interesting that we are also studying in my new Bible study about waiting for God to fulfill his promise. God has a plan for me and I need to let His plan take place and not rush in to fix what is not broken. Thank you, Elizabeth
Awesome, Elizabeth! God is teaching us so much. Frank & I are at the Grand Canyon this weekend enjoying God's grandeur every where we look. I'm glad you are studying about patience in your bible study. It's so hard to let God work out things with His perfect timing. Yet we know the peace that ensues when we finally just allow God to bring about His highest good for our lives. We need to be patient with ourselves too b/c through all our successes and disappointments, God is with us, encouraging us along the way as His precious children.
On the subject of justice, I remember quoting to a student an Eleanor Roosevelt saying, "No one can make you feel inferior w/o your consent." Many times we can be upset by something that happens in life, thinking that it is unfair, but really it's our perception that makes in just or unjust. If someone says something about us that is hurtful, we would never be hurt by it if we didn't know what had been said. Epictetus, an ancient Greek philosopher, said, "Men are disturbed not by things that happen, but by their opinions of the things that happen."
This part of the response has nothing to do with your post, Elizabeth, but it's just something I was thinking about in relation to God bringing justice into our lives. Have a wonderful weekend!
Hi- I found this blog through a search engine. Can you please tell me about the book you are referring too? I am looking for something to read to help me through what has happened to me, and your comments tell me what you are reading is what I need to read... can you share this with me?
thank you.
kristina (I dont know how these posts work, so can you respond to me at creativetracks@hotmail.com ? I am worried about missing out on this information)
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