Therefore humble yourselves under the mighty hand of God, that He may exalt you in due time, casting all your care upon Him, for He cares for you. Be sober, be vigilant; because your adversary the devil walks about like a roaring lion, seeking whom he may devour. Resist him, steadfast in the faith, knowing that the same sufferings are experienced by your brotherhood in the world. But may the God of all grace, who called us to His eternal glory by Christ Jesus, after you have suffered for a while, perfect, establish, strengthen, and settle you. To Him be the glory and the dominion forever and ever. Amen
Richard Craig, Author at GraceAndWorks - Page 34 of 59
PRAISE the Lord!!
Praise, O servants of the Lord, praise the name of the Lord! Blessed be the name of the Lord from this time forth and forevermore! From the rising of the sun to its going down the Lord’s name is to be praised.
It is honorable for a man to stop striving, since any fool can start a quarrel. Proverbs 20:3
Love is patient and kind; Love is not jealous or boastful; It is not arrogant or rude. Love does not insist on it’s own way; It is not irritable or resentful; It does not rejoice at wrong, but rejoices in right. Love bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things.
Let nothing be done through selfish ambition or conceit, but in lowliness of mind let each esteem others better than himself. Let each of you look out not only for his own interests, but also for the interest of others.
We are all pretty familiar with both of these. I want to take a look at how they relate to life. It might be surprising to you the similarity and yet the major differences.
We’ll look at the Yo-Yo first. I, as I would imagine you also, have sometime in your life played with a Yo-Yo. I’m certainly not an expert with a Yo-Yo, but I have played with one. I see it as this round thing with string wound around the middle. You start it at the top and it falls to the bottom spinning around and around. If you’re lucky, when it hits bottom you can give it a little jerk and it will come back to the top. For me, it would come up half way, or so, and spin out of control. It would go every which way and eventually get out of control and get all tangled up and I would have to start all over. I’ve heard people say, “My life is like a Yo-Yo.” For some, a Yo-Yo can be mastered to the point they can make it do all sorts of things. For some it just becomes a mess–just like life.
A Roller-Coaster has a track that it runs on. It has ups and downs and curves in the middle. However with it being on a track it has stability, unlike the Yo-Yo. Very seldom does it ever jump off track. In this example life would have it’s ups and downs, but still stay on track. It would throw curves at you and still be on track. I’ve heard people say, “My life is like a Roller-Coaster.” Many people are like a Roller-Coaster. They can handle the ups and downs, and what ever curves that are there, and still reach their destiny. They don’t get hung up in the middle and spin out of control like a life of a Yo-Yo.
In our Christian lives we deal with the same thing. If we treat the Bible as our track, study and do what God says, we may still have ups and downs and curves thrown at us. However, it gives us the stability we need to be able to stay on track and not get off course. Without God’s word, life can be like the Yo-Yo. Somewhere we get caught in the middle, spin out of control, get all tangled up and have to start all over.
Where is your life? Like a Yo-Yo, tangled up and spinning put of control? Or, like the Roller-Coaster, on track, able to handle the ups and downs, and the curves life gives us?
Behold, happy is the man whom God corrects; Therefore do not despise the chastening of the Almighty. For He bruises, but He binds up; He wounds, but His hands make whole. He shall deliver you in six troubles, yes, in seven no evil shall touch you.
Let all bitterness, wrath, anger, clamor, and evil speaking be put away from you, with all malice. And be kind to one another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, even as God in Christ forgave you.
You are my portion, O Lord; I have said hat I would keep Your words. I entreated Your favor with my whole heart; Be merciful to me according to Your word. I thought about my ways, and turned my feet to Your testimonies. I made haste, and did not delay to keep Your commandments. The cords of the wicked have bound me, but I have not forgotten Your law. At midnight I will rise to give thanks to You, because of Your righteous judgements. I am a companion of all who fear You, and of those who keep Your precepts. The earth, O Lord, is full of Your mercy; Teach me Your statutes.
Let no corrupt word proceed out of your mouth, but what is good for necessary edification, that it may impart grace to the hearers.
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