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In Times of Challenge

 
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Prayer-Soldier
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PostPosted: Sat Mar 01, 2014 12:21 am    Post subject: In Times of Challenge Reply with quote

In Times of Challenge

Scripture:


And Sion said: The Lord has forsaken me, and the Lord has forgotten me. Can a woman forget her infant, so as not to have pity on the son of her womb? And if she should forget, yet I will not forget you. (Isaiah 49:14-15)

Let a man so account of us as of the ministers of Christ and the dispensers of the mysteries of God. Here now it is required among the dispensers that a man be found faithful. But to me it is a very small thing to be judged by you or by the day of man. But neither do I judge my own self. For I am not conscious to myself of anything. Yet am I not hereby justified: but he that judges me is the Lord. Therefore, judge not before the time: until the Lord come, who both will bring to light the hidden things of darkness and will make manifest the counsels of the hearts. And then shall every man have praise from God. (1 Corinthians 4:1-5)

No man can serve two masters. For either he will hate the one, and love the other: or he will sustain the one, and despise the other. You cannot serve God and mammon. Therefore I say to you, be not solicitous for your life, what you shall eat, nor for your body, what you shall put on. Is not the life more than the meat: and the body more than the raiment? Behold the birds of the air, for they neither sow, nor do they reap, nor gather into barns: and your heavenly Father feeds them. Are not you of much more value than they?

And which of you by taking thought, can add to his stature one cubit? And for raiment why are you solicitous? Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow: they labor not, neither do they spin. But I say to you, that not even Solomon in all his glory was arrayed as one of these. And if the grass of the field, which is today, and tomorrow is cast into the oven, God does so clothe: how much more you, O you of little faith? Be not solicitous therefore, saying: What shall we eat: or what shall we drink, or wherewith shall we be clothed? For after all these things do the heathens seek. For your Father knows that you have need of all these things. Seek therefore first the kingdom of God, and his justice, and all these things shall be added unto you. Be not therefore solicitous for tomorrow; for the morrow will be solicitous for itself. Sufficient for the day is the evil thereof.
(Matthew 6:24-34)

Reflection:

In times of challenge, we are tempted to believe our Creator has abandoned and forgotten us. We are tempted to ask, how is it that God allows bad things to happen to the children of His creation? Does not a loving mother seek to provide for the happiness of her child or a loving father seek to protect his family? Yet, does not a loving mother seek for her child to learn? Does not a loving father prepare his children for the day to come? When parents give their offspring freedom so that the child may experience challenge and grow from what experience teaches, it does not mean the parents have abandoned their children to suffering or that parents begin to love their children any less.

We do not always see what our Creator sees. We see only what is before us, try to interpret what others have seen and guess what will come; but He sees and knows all that was, is now and ever shall be. If He allows challenge to cross our path, it is so that a greater good will come. One cannot learn without some form of experience. A life cannot be lived purely through the academics of imagination. He has created us so that we may know life so that we may become prepared, not for this world, but for His kingdom. He desires that He does not lose one of His children, but love is not love if it is not given through freedom of choice; and so He allows us to learn what is of this world and what we may receive from the next so that we will understand the choice of the path of light and the path of darkness; the path of truth and the path of deception; and the path of love and the path of hate.

We often are concerned about what others observe of us. We fear how we may be judged or how we are perceived. Before we become concerned about what others may believe, we should first be concerned with how we may be judged by our Creator. If we seek to learn His ways, we may incur the wrath of those who are blind to Him; but it matters not, for what rejection or pain we feel in this time shall be forever healed within His kingdom.

So it is, we are given a choice. We can choose to love Him or that which will parish. We often view our worth through what we have, what title we possess or position we hold; but we fail to comprehend the worth He has for each of the children of His creation.

In this time, we concern ourselves with matters as to what we may accumulate, not realizing that what we amass enslaves us more than it frees us. What does it matter if we own the world if we are to perish? Anything we can hold in our hands will decay and return to dust. It is only what we may hold within our hearts which will be with us as we pass this world. If what consumes our heart are the matters of this world, it shall perish as do all things of this world. If what consumes our heart is darkness, then, it shall pass to the darkness and all the pain and emptiness which it spawns. If we open our heart to His love, then, we shall be brought to the kingdom of love.

It is better for us, then, to have nothing which we may hold in our hands if our pursuit of it keeps us from filling our hearts with love. The mystery of love is that we cannot buy it or take it; we can only give it, and through giving we may also receive. In this world, we must have food and shelter to enable the survival of our bodies, but, if we have faith in Him, we will receive from what we give.

Through the works of our hands, we may build the things of this world and provide for our existence, but through the matters of the heart, we prepare ourselves for the matters of the world to come. If we place our trust in Him, He will guide is in what we must do for now as well as what is to be. We cannot listen for Him, if we do not seek time with Him. We cannot expect to comprehend His Word if we do not pray for discernment.

If the day and the hour comes that we feel He has abandoned us, it is because we have failed to listen for Him, for He remains with us always. The moment of challenge is not to be feared. Our only fear should be if we fail to learn the greater good He has for us. We may not receive what we desire to receive from this world, but we must trust that the answer He gives to our prayers will be in response to our need. We must trust that from each challenge, a greater good shall come. If we do not see, if we do not comprehend, then, we should ask Him in prayer to help us understand. He will not deny us. He will not abandon us. He will not forget us, for He knows the depths of our heart; He knows our every need. We need only look to the sacrifice He made for us to understand His love for us.

And so it is, He offers to us the opportunity that through what we experience, we may learn and we may grow. Through the darkness of the world, we should see what life is without Him and that the world is not our path to Him. He has given us imagination from which a greater good may spawn. The more we use the gifts He has granted us for His purpose, the more we spread the blessings which are possible through Him. In our time of need, if we open our heart to Him, we will see the strength He offers to us and the eternity which may be ours.

May the peace and blessings of the Lord be with you always,
Prayer Soldier

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