Don't Let Unexpected Situations "Throw" You

As cold is the lack of heat. Darkness is the absence of light.

Fear: a distressing emotion aroused by impending danger, evil, pain, etc., whether the threat is real or imagined; the feeling or condition of being afraid.

Earlier today in the morning, a friend called me concerned about his future. He had just failed one of his classes and became scared he wouldn't be able to graduate. He has a countdown in his mind, one very short. Not only, does he need to redo that class, he also needs to excel in his other classes that he is struggling. A challenge for him, a challenge that will make him change, but a challenge that is nothing compared to God.

As the title from my friend's blog, Israel Sanchez, is called Love Doesn't Let Go, indeed God will never let go of you, but you can let go of him. The daily struggles, of fatigue, stress, lost of focus, and distractions impede men to further grow with the relationship with God. Sometimes they don't just impede us, but they also set us back. Sometimes we get caught up with all of these external dilemmas that out of good habit we try to deal with them and be responsible. We involve ourselves too much in trying to fix the problem that we forget about God. Sometimes the dilemmas are internal like fear and doubt. Every situation, good, bad, or neutral has a choice, has a direction, has a road that God created. No matter how cornered we feel we shouldn't let go.

In Joshua 1 : 5 NLT, says "No one will be able to stand against you as long as you live. For I will be with YOU as I was with Moses. I will NOT fail you or abandon you."

God is always with us, he won't abandon us. Its our choice, and how we behave determines how far we will move away from him. As long as we live, and as long as we are with God, there will be no problem that will be able to take us down. God always has a plan, so TRUST in him.

In 1 Samuel 14 : 6 NLT
"Let's go across to the outpost of those pagans," Jonathan said to his armor bearer. "Perhaps the LORD will help us, for nothing can hinder the LORD. He can win a battle whether he has many warriors or only a few!"

Trust in the Lord, no matter the situation you are in, having trouble in school like my friend, problems with relationships, lost your job, lost a family member, "STUCK" in life, God has a solution for you. All he is asking for you is to TRUST in him, it doesn't matter what type of person you are, God wants to help you.

God’s Favor

But I know the LORD will help those they persecute; he will give justice to the poor.
Psalm 140:12, NLT

All the choices we make, can lead us into situations we don’t want to be in. We might decide to go hang with the wrong type of crowd and you end up getting arrested. You might want to sleep in a little bit more and you miss your SAT exam. You could just get smoke once but you end up becoming addicted to the nicotine. Who knows what choices you have made and have placed you in situations where you don’t want to be?

You might be wondering, how can the Lord help me if I am not poor? Let’s analyze what a person of poor status is. The two main things that they lack is money, hence they can’t get any professional help or someone to defend them. But God says he will give justice to the poor, he will be there with you in situations you can’t be protected by others or get the right help. God is always going to be there with you, but we shouldn’t take advantage of this. We should live responsible, because sometimes it may be you who has to protect the powerless.

So God is with me, what does that mean besides that he will protect me? Or what does it mean that he will he protect me? Let’s take the story of Joseph, the youngest brother of twelve siblings. God was always with him, when his brothers threw him in a hole, when he was a servant of Potiphar, when he was in the jail cell, and when he faced the Pharaoh. So how did God protect him, in all situations he was always humble and God found favor in that. And favor is what he gave Joseph. When he was the servant of Potiphar, the Lord was with Joseph, and Potiphar saw this. So he took advantage and placed him in control of his household and all his stocks. When he was sent to jail, after some time he found favor among the guards from the Lord and he was given a job to watch over all the other jail cells. When he first met the Pharaoh he answered what the dreams meant and soon became the second in command of Egypt.
In the world we face, we live daily scenarios that often put us in situations where we think that there is no way out. But the Lord always has a plan, a plan in favor of you.

For you have judged in my favor; from your throne you have judged with fairness.
Psalm 9:4, NLT

Our Heart's Desires

Self control:control or restraint of oneself or one's actions, feelings, etc.

Something worthy of being able to use for every decision we make, but difficult to master. If we show self control, and take delight in the Lord for what he is doing and what we can learn from the experience we gain. Don't be surprised that people will turn against you for how you react to each situation you face, those who you might call friends at one time, they might make fun of you behind your backs.

Psalm 37:4 NLT
Take delight in the Lord, and he will give you your heart's desire.

Take delight, but that is a constant thing you must do daily. Don't expect God will reward you on your first chance to glorify Him, obey and make it a habit of your daily life and you will be rewarded.

Eternal life is Now

Some believe eternal life starts when you reach our Father's side in heaven, but I believe eternal life starts the moment we take the step to be REAl followers of Christ. That decision can only be made by you, and God will help you shape your heart if you are willing to do everything for his Glory.

1 Peter 1:3-4
All praise to God; the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. It is by his great mercy that we have been born again, because God raised Jesus Christ from the dead. Now we live with great expectation and we have a priceless inheritance - an inheritance that is kept in heaven for you and undefiled, beyond the reach and change of decay.

God keeps the eternal life in heaven to protect it, but that eternal life is ours, so why walk in fear of death or troubles, when we know that what is happening right now is only temporary. Romans 8:32 says that God did not spare his own son but instead gave him to us, won't he give us everything else? It is through Christ Jesus that we have conquered death. For when we face problems or even death, it will just be like making another daily decision that leads you on a new path to life.

Where Do I Stand....

On the video, I messed up here and there, but I hope you received the message. When we want to get closer to God, we can look into the book of James, to find lessons that will shape our attitude.

In the first chapter, the main lesson is that we have to stand with God, all the time. Not just when we feel in danger or when you know something bad will happen. Don't think though, that standing with God is an easy objective to accomplish, what I mean is that you might go 75% but as you keep going up you see that the trials you are facing are getting more hard.

In 1 Peter 1:6-4 (NTL) So be truly glad. There is wonderful joy ahead, even though you have to endure many trials for a little while. These trials will show that your faith is genuine. It is being tested as fire tests and purifies gold-though your faith is far more precious than mere gold. So when your faith remains strong through many trials, ir will bring you much praise and glory and honor on the day when Jesus is revealed to the whole world.

Once you decide that you want to be the light in shadows of the valley of death that we walk, we will face adversity. But don't falter, these problems if overcomed will purify your soul the same way fire can be used to purify gold. When gold is heated, the impurities float on top of the gold and can be easily removed, sort of like the same process for making skim milk. If we face a problem, don't ask God "why me?" when you perfectly know that it is not God who wants to hurt you but the enemy instead is trying to keep you at that 75%, so that you will not get that glory once you have achieved 100%.

So what do facing these problems yield. Once overcomed, you will gain confidence, perseverance, and courage. In more detailed, c0nfidence is what will allow us to walk with God, because we will understand that God is there protecting us and guiding us to a better future. Perseverance, we feel horrible deep inside, you want to go berserk because the problems you are facing right now are to big for you, but showing perseverance in a situation like this means that you will show your grief but will not fall into bitterness or depression. Courage, will be naturally formed in you because you will see that Jesus will walk with you as a Brother, so we don't need to be afraid. Being afraid will cloud our vision of who we really are.

So friends, I leave you with that. If you wan't to email me go ahead, only.praise.be.to.him@gmail.com I will respond as soon as I can.

Perspective v. Reality

So everything we do for the Lord must be done with joy. When we praise him, we do it because we want to not just to make our neighbor happy. In the movie Facing the Giants I learned that everything we do must be for God, even writing this blog. By all means I don't want to receive a prize for this, I'm only doing it to share His love with you. Sometimes we forget that we can do all things in Him, we break down and say "My life can't get any worser......etc." but only because our faith fluctuates.

When you first become a Christian, in sense you have been reborn. You are a fresh new baby. The longer we pass with God the bigger our faith will become, starting out is quite easy but once we get to our spiritual teen years, when just like our mood change from day one to day two so can our faith.

So we have analyzed our problem, and of course to gain faith is something not found easy. Of course the word of the Lord is there to help you, but you have to put your own part to it. We can not be doing what our Flesh wants to do (Next blog: Our Flesh), instead we should be doing what the Holy Spirit in our body is telling us to do. It's not easy hearing that Voice but it is not impossible.

Imagine this diorama, there are three layers to the human body. The outermost one is our flesh, what our natural instincts tell us to do. The middle layer is a semi-flesh layer, more like what our flesh wants but invigorated with lies, emotions, insecurities. And the last layer, is where the Holy Spirit resides. So now you know that you will be digging through your mind just to find his guidance, its not easy but with a devoted heard you can find it. Just remember Philippians 4:13.

One last thing, I'm applying this as I write this blog, is that we have to set the ground ready for God to water it. What do I mean? Simple, I have faith that this blog will reach those who need to read it, I don't care if it only gets one view, a thousand would be nice to hehhe, but back to the point I'm writing this in faith (setting the field) so that when its God's turn, he will use this message to change someone.

If you feel that you have noticed that the way you act is not the way you think you should be acting. Do you think that there is more to you than what your current status offers to you? Do you feel endlessly wandering this Earth knowing you have a purpose but no matter how much you try to find it, you always find a wall blocking your path? Do you want forgiveness for your sins?

If you haven't accepting Jesus into your heart, then read out loud this few words.

Lord Jesus Christ, I believe you took all the pain on the cross to give me a new life. I ask of You to come to my life, to change me, to make me a better person so that I can do your will. I confess that I have sinned, that I have gone my own way, without your guidance. I accept you now as my Lord and Savior. Fill me with the Holy Spirit, and help me follow your path, so that I may live a new life under your presence. Thank you, Amen.