The secret to life is JOY; that we learn to rejoice in the Lord always!!!
And Jesus said unto his disciples:
“I tell you a truth, unless you turn from your sins and become like little children, you will never get into the Kingdom of Heaven.”
| Rejoice, this is the day that the Lord has made!
What do the humble and the joyous have in common? They both look up. The humble are those who don’t look down on anyone. The truly humble look up all the time. They have to look up, because their eyes are on God, and He’s above them. The joyous are always looking up as well, otherwise they wouldn’t be rejoicing. The joyous are believing the Good News, so they rejoice! The prideful, however, are those who think they’re above everything else and so they look down on people. The prideful are connected to the others who look down, the cynical, the doubting, the despairing, the depressed, the sorrowful and the hopeless. In the same way that the humble and the joyous go together, so do pride and despair. Humility leads to joy. Pride leads to despair. Let’s get our eyes off ourselves, off of our problems, off of the world around us. Let’s fix our eyes on Him, the Redeemer of our souls. Those who look up in humility, also look up in joy! Together, let’s fix our eyes on Him and be glad!! Your family in the Lord with much agape love, George, Rivka, Elianna & Obadiah |
One thing about children is they tell it like it is, without any guile or hidden agendas; and you know something… Jesus is exactly that same way!
We all started out there, but life has its way of molding and shaping us after this fallen and depraved world; where after having been toss about and hurt a number of times, we tend to regress and withdrawal behind facades and walls that we erect around us to protect us and to hide our vulnerability.
All of this, though it is quite natural that we would do this, it shows a complete lack of trust in God and faith in God; and it leaves any resolution God would have to our situation out of the picture.
You see, before you can begin with God, you must first be willing to humble yourself in His presence, or else He will humble you; but mind you it will not be to destroy you, but rather it will be to cause you to come to repentance.
Then the next step is to repent, which comes from a Greek word which literally means to change the way you think; not as the world thinks, and not as your circumstances and life have caused you to think; but to begin to put on the Mind of Christ.
The way you do this is by faith you begin to follow the leading and instructions of the Bible; you begin to follow God’s instructions on how to live and deal with life; and you begin a life of communion with the Holy Spirit.
Next, and this is very important, you must forgive all those who have hurt you; you must release them from any debt, or perceived obligation you may feel toward them of having them make restitution for their sins against you; or of seeing them suffer the way they possible have caused you to suffer.
In other words, you release them completely, and you give it over completely to God; forgiving them as God has forgiven you.
Forgiveness after all, in both the Hebrew and Greek, means to release and to let go; and it does not at all require the other person to in anyway acknowledge your apology, if you have sinned against them; and nor does it necessarily involve reconciliation, through of course that would be the desired goal… it just means you release it ALL, and it is no longer your burden or problem!
The Bible is very clear here, that unless you are willing to release others in this way, then you cannot be forgiven of your sins; and if God doesn’t forgive you, then you cannot be saved.
That is how important it is to release and to forgive others!
This is just something for us ALL to think about today.
Shalom,
Skip Barland
SB SALT AND LIGHT MINISTRIES 