Family of God: Re: [FamilyofGod] To Share...last one for today... :-)

Crying here needed this thanx

On Wed Jan 19th, 2011 4:05 PM EST Lashanda W. wrote:

>Family,
>
>These articles are so powerful to me. Here's one more for today. Maybe I'll
>share another tomorrow. Enjoy.
>
>Bringing God into the Negative
>by startingwithGod.com on April 28, 2010
>By Ney Bailey
>Has anything negative happened to you in the last 24 hours, or in the last week?
>Well if it hasn't, it will! Because the Lord Himself said, "In this world you
>will have troubles." But He said, "Be of good cheer for I have overcome the
>world."1 And the apostle John writes, "This is the victory that has overcome the
>world, even our faith."2 As negative circumstances enter our lives, it's
>important to know that we can trust God who is faithful in the midst of our
>challenges.
>The Lord said, "Heaven and earth shall pass away, but My Word will not pass
>away."3 That means His Word is truer than anything we feel and truer than any
>circumstance that will ever be in our lives. What is faith? Taking God at His
>Word.
>We especially need to know that His Word is truer than how we feel when the
>negative hits. How much faith does the Lord say it takes to deal with
>situations? What's the smallest denomination of faith? Jesus said, "I tell you
>the truth, if you have faith as small as a mustard seed…"4 A mustard seed is a
>tiny round seed. I think it is by His grace that He says we only need a mustard
>seed. I'm grateful He doesn't say we need faith the size of an orange or an
>apple.
>If we just "feel" something and that's all we do, we spiral downward. But if we
>take that mustard seed of faith and we choose with our wills to take God at His
>Word a little bit, even if our feelings are screaming 180 degrees in the other
>direction, then God has something to work with. He asks us to trust Him, "to
>live by faith, and not by sight."5 The Scripture states in Romans 1:17 that we
>go "from faith to faith." We take God at His Word a little bit, then a little
>bit more and a little bit more.
>Many times I have had people say to me, "A good Christian shouldn't feel this
>way." Or I hear other people say, "If I were you I wouldn't feel that way." The
>fact is you do feel that way, so what are you going to do about it?
>Have you ever seen this train diagram? The engine represents God's Word, the
>Bible, which is truth: "Fact." The coal car represents our faith in God's Word.
>And last of all, the caboose represents our feelings. It is the engine that
>pulls the train, not the caboose. It's okay to have feelings. You were created
>in God's image as an emotional being and you do have feelings. But our feelings
>can be unreliable. We need to put our faith in God and His Word.
>I think our best example, as always, is the Lord Jesus Christ Himself. If you
>look at Him in the Garden of Gethsemane, right before He was to go to the cross,
>Jesus wasn't saying, "The Son of God shouldn't feel this way." He wasn't saying,
>"If I were trusting God I wouldn't feel this way." If you look at those passages
>you will see He was feeling everything there was to feel. It says, "He began to
>be sorrowful and troubled…'My soul is overwhelmed with sorrow to the point of
>death.'"6 Look at the words in Scripture that describe Him during that time. He
>was deeply grieved, troubled, distressed, in agony—all feelings. But He was
>trusting the Father in the midst of His feelings, saying to the Father, "…not as
>I will, but as you will."7
>You don't need to stuff your feelings or just gut it out. You can have deep
>feelings and trust God in the midst of those feelings. If you get that, it will
>set you free.
>With this as a backdrop, how then do we bring God into the negative? Let's look
>at three ways.
>1. We Bring God into the Negative by Praising and Thanking Him
>The first way we bring God into the negative is by praising Him and thanking
>Him. Ephesians 5:18-20 says, "And do not get drunk with wine for that is
>dissipation but be filled with the Spirit, speaking to one another in psalms and
>hymns and spiritual songs, singing and making melody in your heart to the Lord
>always giving thanks in all things in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ to God
>even the Father."
>And I Thessalonians 5:18: "In everything, give thanks for this is the will of
>God in Christ Jesus concerning you." I think the toughest word in this verse is
>"In." The toughest time for me to give thanks is when I'm in a negative
>situation and I don't feel like giving thanks.
>I heard a story years ago that helped bring this home to me and make it very
>practical. A woman and her husband had heard a speaker talk about the fact that
>they needed to praise God and thank God for everything in their lives,
>especially for the most difficult. As they were going home, they said, "Well you
>know what the most difficult thing in our lives is? It's our son."
>They had a seventeen-year-old son who had never given them anything but trouble.
>He had been difficult to the mother, to the father, to his brothers and sisters.
>They had done everything they knew to do with him and it just simply did not
>work. So on the way home, for the very first time, they thanked God for their
>son, and they praised God for their son.
>Their son had been home alone that night and as they drove into the driveway of
>their home, every light in the house was on. They said, "Father we thank you and
>praise you for our son. We even praise you and thank you that the lights are
>on."
>Then they went into the kitchen and there was the biggest mess you've ever seen.
>Out on the counter were ice trays and Coke cans, bread and mayonnaise, mustard,
>lunch meat and cookies and potato chips. They stopped and said, "Lord we praise
>you and we thank you for our son. We even praise you and thank you for this
>mess."
>Then they went into the family room. The television was on and there were papers
>strewn all over, left over Coke cans and cookies and sandwiches. They stopped
>and they said, "We praise you and thank you for our son, we praise you and thank
>you for this mess."
>They continued to praise God and thank God for their son, all that day, the next
>day and the next day. Sunday afternoon, there was a knock on the bedroom door.
>And the son said, "Mom and Dad, can I come in and talk to you?" He continued,
>"Mom, Dad, I've been doing a lot of thinking, especially lately. You know, I've
>been miserable, unhappy and frustrated as long as I can remember. You know, I
>can't take it out on my friends, because I need my friends. I've gotta be nice
>to my friends. I can't take my hostility out on my teachers because I want to
>make at least halfway decent grades. The thing I realize, Mom and Dad, is that
>I've been taking it out on the family. I just want to tell you, I'm not going to
>do that anymore."
>When we praise God for what we don't like, we bring God into the negative and
>release His power to work. The alternative is that we keep the lid on and we
>don't let Him into our negative situation. I believe that we become bitter to
>the degree we don't give thanks. I don't want to become a bitter person in life,
>so I know that I need to praise God and thank Him now.
>We bring God into the negative by giving thanks and praising Him.
>2. We Bring God into the Negative by Blessing and not Cursing
>The second way we bring God into the negative is by blessing and not cursing. I
>wish I had learned this many years ago. I could have saved myself a lot of
>trouble.
>James 3:8-10 says, "But no one can tame the tongue. It is a restless evil and
>full of deadly poison. With it we bless our Lord and Father and with it we curse
>men who have been made in the likeness of God. From the same mouth come both
>blessing and cursing. My brethren, these things ought not be this way."
>The word "curse" is not referring to four-letter words. It means to speak evil
>of, or to not speak well of. And the word "bless" means just the opposite, to
>speak well of. I heard a true story that helped me understand what is meant by
>cursing and blessing someone.
>In Portland, Oregon, a pastor and his wife had enormous trouble with a son. At
>the height of it, he left home and they had not heard a word from him for three
>or four years. This pastor went to a Christian counselor whom he knew very well
>and after pouring out his heart, the counselor looked at him and he said, "How
>long have you been cursing your son?"
>Shocked by the strong words, he said, "What do you mean how long have I been
>cursing my son?" The counselor responded, "Well the word curse means to speak
>evil of, or to not speak well of. And everything you've just told me is some way
>you are not speaking well of your son. How long have you been doing that?" The
>pastor hung his head and said, "Well I guess I've been cursing him all of his
>life. I've never, never had a good thing to say about him, ever." And the
>counselor said, "It hasn't worked, has it?" He said, "No."
>The counselor said, "I want to challenge you and your wife that for the next two
>months, when your son comes to mind I want you to bless him. I want you to pray
>God's blessings on him. When you speak of your son in your home, I want you to
>try to remember something good about him. I want you to speak well of him."
>The pastor said, "I guess I've got everything to gain and nothing to lose so
>I'll take you up on it." He went home and told his wife, who agreed, and they
>began. When they prayed for their son, they prayed God's blessing on him. When
>they spoke of their son, they tried to remember some good things about him. They
>continued to do that day after day.
>On about the 10th day the pastor was in his study and the telephone rang. You
>guessed it. On the other end of the phone was the son. And the son said, "Dad,
>I'm not really sure why I'm calling but I've just had you and Mom and the family
>on my heart and my mind for the last week or so and I just thought I'd call and
>check in with you." And the father said, "Son, I'm so glad you are calling." He
>had to contain himself to not come right through the phone. They chatted for a
>few minutes and the father said to the son, "I don't know if you can find it in
>your heart or not, but how about meeting me on Saturday for lunch?" He said,
>"Sure Dad, I'll meet you."
>The day came. They met for lunch. The son came in his old ragged clothes. His
>hair was long and he was kind of disheveled. Whereas before the father would
>have been very critical and judgmental, this time he went in with an attitude of
>accepting his son, blessing him in his heart. He asked his son questions and he
>listened to his answers. He affirmed him where appropriate. At the end of that
>lunch the son looked across the table and he said, "Dad, I don't know what's
>going on here, but I've kind of enjoyed being with you." And the father said,
>"Well I've enjoyed being with you too, son." The son said, "Well Dad, do you
>think maybe just for tonight I can come home and spend the night in my old bed
>and see Mom and the family. Just for tonight." He said, "Sure son, we'd love to
>have you."
>As the father walked through the rest of that day, he was stricken in his heart
>to realize what a difference it had made to stop cursing his son and start
>blessing him. That night when the son was in his bed in his bedroom, the father
>went slowly in there and sat down. He said, "Son will you forgive me for all the
>ways I've treated you through the years." And the son said, "Sure Dad, I'll
>forgive you." And he put his arms around his father's neck. That was the
>beginning of the restoration of that relationship. But when was the real
>beginning? The real beginning was when that father and mother began to bless
>their son in their hearts.
>I don't understand it, but in some unique way God honors it when we bless others
>and when we don't curse them. We reap what we sow. If we sow cursing we are
>going to reap cursing. If we sow blessing, we reap blessing. And I would rather
>reap blessing, wouldn't you?
>We bring God into the negative by blessing and not cursing.
>3. We Bring God into the Negative by Forgiving
>The last way we bring God into the negative is by forgiving. Look at Colossians
>3:12,13: "And so as those who have been chosen of God, holy and beloved, put on
>a heart of compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness and patience, bearing with
>one another and forgiving each other who ever has a complaint against anyone,
>just as the Lord forgave you so also should you."
>I like that because the Lord acknowledges that we have complaints against each
>other. But he says whoever has a complaint, just as the Lord forgave you, so
>also should you. All of us have been hurt. I think the deepest hurts that we
>ever have come from within our own families or come from the people who are
>closest to us.
>One of the deepest hurts that I ever had was from my father. My father grew up
>without loving, attentive parents and he never learned how to express love and
>warmth to others. I concluded that my father probably didn't love me. To
>complicate matters, my father had a drinking problem. As I grew up in that
>household, I grew more bitter and more resentful as the days went by. I didn't
>like the way my father talked to my mother. I didn't like the way he talked to
>me. On a couple of occasions he got violent, but most of the time we just pretty
>much ignored each other. I remember talking to my mother and she would say, "I
>just can't talk to your father." Well if she couldn't talk to him then I sure
>couldn't talk to him. Have you ever had those situations? It was tough. If you
>had known me in high school or college, I would not have had one nice thing to
>say about my father. It is safe to say that I hated him.
>A couple of years out of college, I heard a speaker quote 1 John 4:8 "God is
>love." And then the speaker used 1 Corinthians 13 to describe God's love toward
>us. When it says, "Love is patient, love is kind…" the speaker suggested reading
>it as "God is patient, God is kind, etc." What he was saying was that God's love
>toward me was patient. God's love toward me was kind. God's love toward me would
>hope all things, endure all things and bear all things. I never thought of the
>fact that God had a 1 Corinthian 13 type of love for me.
>Then I began to think about my father as I left that meeting. I thought all
>these years I had been waiting for my father to shape up and stop drinking and
>then I was going to love him. But it was as though God said to me. "Ney, you
>have more light, you have more grace. My love toward your father is kind. My
>love toward your father is patient. My love toward your father hopes all things,
>endures all things and bears all things. Ney, I want you to take the first step
>toward him."
>Tears began to stream down my face as I realized I did not have God's love for
>my very own father. It seemed like the Lord had done something new in my life
>but I knew I wasn't going to know until I was home again and I was with him.
>A few months later I went home with an attitude of acceptance and love. As I
>went in the house with this new attitude towards him of acceptance, love and
>forgiveness, guess what? My father sensed my spirit. And as I was nice to him,
>he was nice in return. My father didn't know much about how to love, but he knew
>how to respond a little bit to love. I thought if I had known it was going to
>make this much difference I might have been nice a lot sooner. While I was home
>on that trip, my father went over to the dress shop of one of his clients and
>brought home 3 dresses on approval for me to try on. He had never done that
>before.
>When I left home that time, I began to think about how the Lord says to honor
>your father and mother that it may go well with you and you may live long on the
>earth. I said to the Lord, "You are the one who thought up this thing about
>honoring, now will you show me how to do that." And the Lord began to give me
>ways that I could demonstrate love to them.
>For the first time in my life, I thanked the Lord for my father and for my
>mother. More time passed and this is going to sound a little melodramatic, but
>this actually did happen. I was sitting one day and just kind of staring into
>space. I began to think about my father. I thought if my father were to die and
>I were to go to his funeral, and I would look out and see his casket, would I
>have any regrets? I thought, yes I would regret that I had never asked him to
>forgive me for some of my ugly ways in my growing up years.
>So I purposed in my heart to go home and ask his forgiveness. He described
>himself as a bull-headed lawyer. So to think about talking to him was very scary
>for me. When I imagined that scenario, I could see myself lying prostrate on the
>floor sobbing my heart out unable to utter a word.
>The next time I visited my parents, I waited until halftime during a football
>game on TV, and I said, "Daddy, you know I've been thinking about my growing up
>years, how ungrateful and unloving, unkind I was." And then I said, "Will you
>forgive me?" There was this pause and he turned and looked at me with this
>twinkle in his eye and he said, "No." He said, "I don't remember all those
>things." And then he named one. I knew it was important to get a response from
>him so I said, "Will you forgive me for the things you can remember?" And he
>said, "Yes." Right after that he said, "Now where are you going on your next
>trip?" He had never asked me that before. On the way out the door he asked,
>"When will you be home next?" And I said, "December 21 or 22." And he said,
>"I'll see you on the 21st."
>One day my mother called me and she said, "Honey, your dad found something in a
>catalog and it reminded him of you and he bought it and had it wrapped and sent
>it UPS all by himself. He is sending you a surprise." I could not wait for that
>package to come. He had never done that before. When it finally came, inside was
>a little Melita two-cup coffee maker in a brown travel case, because he knew I
>liked coffee and I was traveling a lot. As I held that in my hands I thought, "O
>Lord this represents a lot more than a Melita two-cup coffee maker. This
>represents a relationship that you have restored."
>I remembered that when I didn't feel like it, I chose with my will to put my
>mustard seed of faith over on the Lord's side and choose with my will to forgive
>my father. I believe when we are hurt we need to ask ourselves the question, is
>my God bigger than my hurt or is my hurt bigger than my God? We are the ones
>that get to choose.
>There are so many things that are absolutely inexcusable. But there is nothing
>that is unforgivable. Someone has said, "To forgive is to set the prisoner free,
>only to discover the prisoner was you." My dad never asked me to forgive him.
>But God asked that of me and it made all the difference.
>Maybe you are thinking, "Well Ney, what if the person I need to forgive has
>already died?" I have good news for you. God is not limited by time. He is the
>same yesterday, today and forever. I believe you can tell the Lord what you
>would have said and He will honor that.
>In summary, is there a negative in your life? I encourage you to praise God and
>thank Him.
>Are you cursing someone? May God give you the grace to begin to bless them
>instead.
>Is there a deep, deep hurt? May God give you the grace to forgive and by so
>doing you will bring God into the negative and release His power to work.
>1John 16:33
>21 John 5:4
>3Matthew 24:35
>4Matthew 17:20
>52 Corinthians 5:7
>6Matthew 26:37,38
>7Matthew 26:39
>Excerpted from a forthcoming book with WaterBrook Press. Copyright © 2004 by Ney
>Bailey. All rights reserved. No portion of this material may be reproduced or
>transmitted in any form or by any means without written permission. The sharing
>of this article with another individual is permitted, if accompanied by this
>copyright notice.
>Ney Bailey is the author of Faith Is Not a Feeling. WaterBrook Press.
> LaShanda
>
>"Verily, verily, I say unto you, He that heareth my word, and believeth on him
>that sent me, hath everlasting life, and shall not come into condemnation; but
>is passed from death unto life." (John 5:24)
>
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