Your life.

Your life. It is filled with joys. It is filled also with sorrows. Sickness, pain, death, hatred, divisions...

Life would seem a senseless roller coaster of emotions. Why have pain? Why have sorrow? There would be no purpose in it...if there wasn't a Divine Orchestrator.

God chooses you when "bad" things happen. He knows you can handle it, and He wants you, with that ability to handle it, to be a beacon for Him.

No, I don't think the idea would be to stand on a pedestal when you experience hardships and proclaim the love of God. Not everyone will listen to that. What they listen to is someone who is going through similar things, who live through it with God's light showing through.

"Let your light so shine before men, that they may see your good works, and glorify your Father which is in heaven. " -Matt 5:6


Don't look at your problems(be the genuine, or petty) and then blow up in God's face about the lack of fairness. This problem you have both molds you, and gives you an opportunity for God to mold others.

Life is a tapestry. Your discolored life of a thread weaves perfectly into the tapestry as a whole. It may be stained with the cold colors of sorrow, but placed into God's hands it shows beauty. "Beauty? My son/father/mother/sibling dying is beauty?!"

The showing of beauty is the beauty of God's hope. There is hope in every trouble in life. That hope can be ignored, or it can be harnessed, and the light of God's love revealed.


Don't dwell on the dreariness of your life. It may truly be hard and dreary. I won't minimize that possibility. But you can handle it. You can grab hold of God's hope for yourself, and then shine forth the light of God in so doing. So, please, see this problem you are facing as God telling you that he trusts you enough to choose you to shine his light to the world.

Freedom

"All my chains I can't disengage
And I don't believe that I want to
One hand sings your praise the other brings me shame
I have selfishness to blame

And I'm singing for freedom
I know I'm not the only one
Praying to the One
Who can bring me this freedom
And I'm ready for change

Broken down I lay
I keep holding my chains
No longer bound but here I stay
I scream Father please
I need rescuing I need you and you alone

And I'm singing for freedom
I know I'm not the only one
Praying to the One
Who can bring me this freedom
I'm ready for I'm ready for (change)

Still you patiently wait
Yet i won't just let go
I see you and you alone
Saying come follow me despair has come so you can see
Release

And so I'm singing for freedom
And so I'm singing for freedom

The time has come separation has lost the war to love
Take my hand grace has found you where you once began
Your alive You're alive in the waking of new life
Take my hand in the end there's only love
There's only love

There's only singing for freedom
I know I'm not the only one
Praying to the one
Who can become this freedom
And I'm ready for I'm ready for
Father please I need rescuing
I need you and you alone"

Christian lyrics - FREEDOM LYRICS - RUN KID RUN


Oh, how that describes me right now. I can't take off the chains sin has placed on me, but I don't even know if I truly want to. One half of my body praises and serves God...but then the other half serves my self--selfishly I work to satisfy my flesh.

So I sing for freedom, pray to God to free me from this sin. But he tells me He already has--on the cross and from the empty grave. I look back down to the chains on my wrists and realize I was mistaken--they weren't locked. So now they fall to my feet.

In my head, I take a step away from the chains--but in reality I remain. I break free and run as fast as I can...on stationary feet. Despite all my knowledge to run away from the chains that no longer bind me, I stay. My feet won't budge, so I scream to my Father to come and rescue me. I begin to pray, cry, sing to God to bring freedom.

God waits for me. God knows it is too important for me to choose Him, to run to Him. So He beckons me, but yet I stand here by my chains. He pleads me to forsake this folly, but my deceiving heart deafens me, and I gaze at the chains.

I see His hand reach out. His lips mouth words, and slowly my ear begins to hear the beauty of his words. "This war is won by love. In the end of it all, it is love that brings you to me, and me to you."

We love God because he loved us first. So, in order for us to love God, He must first love us. But we can't love God if we don't know fully His love. It will only be an appreciation.

Once we experience His love, we can love Him. Abide in His love, and God will abide in us. God's love will be loosened on our hearts. Then we can love God. Once we love God, the love for sin will diminish. The key to winning the war with sin--hate it!

But Jesus says to abide in His love is to keep His commandments. (John 15). So, keep his commandments, abide in His love, love Him, hate sin, and you will then take that step away from those chains.


-Kevin