To Live Your Life

In a direct way most will find times when we are 'afraid' to live our lives.  Not even for any real reason, only the fear of making a mistake.

Ecclesiastes 9:11  I returned, and saw under the sun, that the race is not to the swift, nor the battle to the strong, neither yet bread to the wise, nor yet riches to men of understanding, nor yet favor to men of skill; but time and chance happeneth to them all.
Time and chance...I don't know if I believe that 'everything' happens for a reason, as some people have stated.  I do know that God can --and does-- change even bad things into something good for those that love him.  Romans 8:28  And we know that to them that love God all things work together for good, even to them that are called according to his purpose.


In the fairy tale story of Sleeping Beauty the angry fairy came in, and determined to take her revenge on the king. So she cries out, "The King's daughter shall in her fifteenth year be wounded by a spindle, and fall down dead." But we know that there was one fair fairy yet to give a gift to the little baby, so that "the twelfth, who had not yet given her gift, came forward and said that the bad wish must be fulfilled, but that she could soften it, and that the king's daughter should not die, but fall asleep for a hundred years."

And so that story goes. The evil that was intended is softened and something good comes from it.  In the case of Sleeping Beauty it took a good long time to see the end of that story.  Our individual stories don't always take so long.

2Peter 3:8  But forget not this one thing, beloved, that one day is with the Lord as a thousand years, and a thousand years as one day. 9)  The Lord is not slack concerning his promise, as some count slackness; but is longsuffering to you-ward, not wishing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance.

Some minutes pass like hours, and some hours pass like minutes it just depends on circumstances.  To us a thousand years is a long time, but for God --who does not live by our standards-- time doesn't pass.  It reminds me of being a drop of water in the ocean.  Where does one drop end and another begin?

Circumstances?  We can't always control our circumstances, but we should choose our response to those circumstances.  I say should because even though we should always choose to do the right thing in any given circumstance, many of us would admit that time and chance have a way of taking us by surprise, and only later do we think 'I should have said this...or I should have done that'.   Doing the right thing?  Even when we set our mind and determine to do the right thing it is far too easy to fall short of that noble mark.

There are two things we need to be mindful of.  As humans it is not always possible to keep our promises, but we should always strive to do so to the best of our abiblity.  When my children were growing up I tried to keep my promises.  If I promised some treat or if I promised some punishment, I tried to follow through.  However God does keep his promises.

Living here on earth is like living in a photograph.  Like seeing just one picture, or maybe one corner of the picture.  We blunder along.  We fail to trust in God.  We allow Satan to side track us.  We confuse God's longsuffering with...well, we confuse it with God being slack, or sometimes we believe God doesn't care.  Maybe we believe that there really isn't a God. 

The Bible contains many fulfilled prophesies.  There are many scientific truths, many historical truths contained in scriptures, that all point to the majesty and omnipotence of God, and yet...  People want to quibble with God.  Many people believe they can tell God what they will do, or what they think, or even what He should do and what He should think. 

I don't know why they would be so arrogant, but they are.  Would they treat a president, a king, a queen, a ruler of any kind in such a manner?  

 Galatians 6:7  Be not deceived; God is not mocked: for whatsoever a man soweth, that shall he also reap.

Ecclesiastes 3:14  I know that, whatsoever God doeth, it shall be for ever: nothing can be put to it, nor any thing taken from it: and God doeth it, that men should fear before him.

Live your life before God, but remember:
Ecclesiastes 11:9  ...but know thou, that for all these things God will bring thee into judgment. 10)  Therefore remove sorrow from thy heart, and put away evil from thy flesh...

Put your life in order, walk in the ways that God would have you walk.

Psalms 46:10  Be still, and know that I am God: I will be exalted among the nations, I will be exalted in the earth.