Confidence

I actually had to work on this subject for a church board meeting, so I decided to just post what I learned and thought based on the scripture that Pastor gave me and the topic which obviously was confidence. I haven't had much confidence in my life. I'm not really sure why, i just never have. Though lately my confidence level has been rising and again I am not sure what is causing that. Pihilippians 3:4-5 tells us "We put no confidence in human efforts. Instead we boast about what Christ has done for us. Yet I could have confidence in myself if anyone could. If others have reason for confidence in their efforts I have even more." What I think Peter is trying to say with this is that we have confidence in God. When we try to do anything we have God at our sides so we should be confident that God will take care of things.

We cannot try to put confidence in ourselves or even others because we will undoubtedly fail at some point and end up disappointed. When we put our confidence in God, we trust that things will work out the way he wants them too instead of how we want them too. It is not the things that we do or say that gives confidence or even eternal life; but it is our faith in God, trust in Him, and that salvation comes from those things.

Prayers

Last year or so I went to a Cancer Treatment Centers of America seminar about counseling those who have been diagnosed with cancer. One of the things that Rev. Percy McCray said really made me think, and it still makes me think. What he said was "We think we can manipulate God with our prayers." I think too often we think we make God answer our prayers. We think we can make what we want to happen simply because we pray to God about it. Other times people would try to bargain with God, something like "If you allow me to have this job I will go to church more" or "I will give more" We will say things we think would make God answer our prayers the way we want them too.

We think simply because the Bible says "ask and ye shall receive" that simply because we ask for it then we will get it. We don't think that God will provide when it is in his time and according to his will. Simply because we want something doesn't mean that we will get it, or that it will happen. We cannot manipulate God into providing what we want simply because we are praying about it. I think we as Christians need to realize that our prayers are asking God for help and guidance, not demanding him of things or a tool to barter with. Prayer is a way to communicate with God and keep our relationship with him strong and grounded.

Pathways

I just read a blog from one of my dearest friends. She was talking about the different paths that we take in life. She was saying sometimes people stay stagnate and just don't move from the point they are at. Like we come to the end of a path, and instead of beginning a new path many people just stay where they are and don't look to see what else is out there. I think people tend to do this with God as well. They come to a point in their faith where they are content with things, and they don't take on a new path in life.

Every path that we take will always end at some point, and when we come to that end point we need to decide on our next path or to stay stagnate as Carrie was saying. But when we remain stagnate and don't do anything else how can we grow and how can we learn? We cannot learn anything new when we don't try new things and go on a different path. We need to remember that different paths can teach us different things. When we look at the past paths we see where we came from and see what we need to learn and the things we already have learned. Our past paths shaped who we are now, and our future paths shape who we are going to be. We cannot remain stagnate in any aspect of our lives, relationships, career, faith etc. Go after your dreams, follow your heart, and grow in God's will.

Good Qualities

I saw this on another blog and I liked the idea of it. God gave us all different wonderful qualities and characteristics. Sometimes we can see those characteristics and qualities in others, but we really need to see them within ourselves. We tend to see more of the bad within ourselves than the good. So this entry is about the good qualities. The qualities that I thank God that he gave me and helps make me the person that I am today. I'm going to stop at six, that's what the other blogger did. I admit doing something like this is really hard and makes me really look at myself. I need to see the woman God made me to be, not the sinful woman I am.

1. I am a good listener and compassionate for others
2. God gave me the ability to write, I need to use it more
3. I am a faithful and loyal friend
4. God made me strong, and he makes me stronger every day
5. I see the world in a different view, I can see the good in everything
6. I am not quick to anger. I let things slide unless they challenge my values.

What are some of the good qualities God has blessed you with? Is it easy for you to see the wonderful person that you are, or are you like me and constantly seeing the bad qualities I think I have.

Valentine's Day

Tomorrow is Valentine's Day and I am sure many couples are planning romantic dates and little gifts to show how much they love each other. In my mind, you shouldn't need a holiday to work at expressing your love for someone. I know a lot of people spend money on gifts or expensive dinners, but who said money is used to express love?

One of my favorite stories in Genesis is the story of Jacob and Rachael. It is one of the first stories of love and expressing that love. Jacob went to his uncle's land to find himself a wife. When he set eyes on Rachael he was in love and worked out a plan to work for SEVEN years in order to prove his worth to marry her. Instead when those seven years were up, on the wedding day, it was Leah not Rachael. Did Jacob cut his losses and just accept that he couldn't have Rachael? No he worked another seven years so he could have her hand. This man worked 14 years so that he could marry this beautiful woman. Now don't get me wrong I am not saying a man should work 14 years, but he should do what it takes to woo a woman before and after marriage.

Just because commercialism says February 14th is the day of love, doesn't mean anything. I think..or rather I know God wants us to be able to express our love for each other as well as Him every living day. We need to tell our loved ones we love them, or find little creative ways to show them. We need to spend more time with God and learning his word as well as talking to him. Valentine's Day is just a day made by man and I don't really like it. I express my love for God and for Nate everyday and don't need to spend money or have a holiday to remind me to do it. It should come natural to express love to God...isn't that what we were created to do in the first place?

Jealousy

Jealousy is a funny little thing. We all experience it at some point in our lives, but some deal with it better than others. Some take their jealousy to uncontrolled levels and start trying to control their spouse or acting out towards the person they are jealous at. I'm going to talk more in terms of jealousy in relationships. So anyway when jealousy takes over in our relationships there are many different bad consequences and you begin to no longer trust them and are constantly questioning their motives for going out, talking to friends or even not callin you. God doesn't want us to act like that. We need to trust each other, just like we would trust God. When we trust each other we respect each other and we are able to have more time to spend with God instead of trying to find out what our spouses are up to.

When it comes to romantic relationships I don't think God would want us to constantly be questioning our spouse. I mean there are times when I don't get to talk to Nate and it does make me sad, but I know there is a good reason why and I trust that he is being loyal whereas there would be women who would constantly call him to find out what he is doing or who he is with. When you are in love with someone you do not treat them like they are less than you which is sometimes what jealousy makes our spouses feel. It takes away all the trust and respect out of a relation and it takes away from our relationship with God. If we can't trust our spouses how can we fully unconditionally trust God? I think that if we can't trust the people in our lives, we can't completely trust God the way we need to.

When we begin to feel jealous about something within our life, we need to stop and pray to God. We need to ask God for the strength and help to deal with our jealousy and find ways to deal with it better than constantly "checking up" on our spouses.

Forgiveness

I have seen many different questions on the internet lately about forgjveness. One of the main questions is this one: "If I don't want to communicate with some does that mean I haven't forgiven them?" I understand some of where this question comes from and I have had someone tell me that if I didn't talk to my father then I didn't truely forgiven him. Sure I have forgiven him, but that doesn't mean I need to have a communication/relationship with him because he did do things that were wrong, and still does. You can forgive someone and not have to have that person in your life. I have forgiven my rapist, but does that mean I need to have a communication with him...of course not.

When we forgive, we don't say that whatever the person did to us was acceptable or that it was okay, we just forgive them for what they did. Forgiveness and communication/relationships dont always go hand in hand...communication/relationships need forgiveness, but forgiveness does not need communication/relationships.