*I wrote this one yesterday, right after the first one but something told me not to post it right away. And as I was revising this last night, I realized that it was because I needed to read it last night and if I had already posted it, who knows if I would have. Well, here it is.
So, the last thing I said was that life’s hard (and I sounded pretty pessimistic doing so). But there’s another approach I want to take on when talking about the fact that "things are rough, but . . ."
(I know, you probably don’t know what to do with all these posts after over 10 days of radio silence, but take it a word at a time =P ).
I want to take this a little more personally. And by personally, I mean that I want to talk about how sometimes people are rough, BUT. But. . .
One of my favorite parts in the Bible is in chapter two of Ephesians, starting in verse four:
"4 But God, being rich in mercy, because of the great love with which he loved us, 5 even when we were dead in our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ—by grace you have been saved— 6 and raised us up with him and seated us with him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus, 7 so that in the coming ages he might show the immeasurable riches of his grace in kindness toward us in Christ Jesus."I’m learning a lot about the nature of things and how sometimes, they have to be broken to even begin to become right again.
Verse three (the one before the verses above) in Ephesians chapter two says:
"among whom we all once lived in the passions of our flesh, carrying out the desires of the body and the mind, and were by nature children of wrath, like the rest of mankind."
We were (are) all
just nasty, broken people; children of wrath.
But God. . .
But God raised us up.
And because He raised us up, we are to be seated with Him.
And like Him.
And because we are to be like Him, there needs to be grace and a "but _____" governing the way we live and the way we forgive.
There needs to be a break in the logic of how I thought relationships worked.
There needs to be an interruption of the tendency to only look out for numero uno.
There needs to be a contradiction to my human nature because of what God has done.
But God. . .
But God raised us up.
And because He raised us up, we are to be seated with Him.
And like Him.
And because we are to be like Him, there needs to be grace and a "but _____" governing the way we live and the way we forgive.
There needs to be a break in the logic of how I thought relationships worked.
There needs to be an interruption of the tendency to only look out for numero uno.
There needs to be a contradiction to my human nature because of what God has done.
I'm finding Philippians chapter one, starting in verse three (but especially verse six) is a good way to look at other saved, (but not perfect) people:
"3 I thank my God in all my remembrance of you, 4 always in every prayer of mine for you all making my prayer with joy, 5 because of your partnership in the gospel from the first day until now. 6 And I am sure of this, that he who began a good work in you will bring it to completion at the day of Jesus Christ. "
There is room for improvement and although we're not perfect yet, perfection is coming with Jesus and the Kingdom of Heaven. We just need to abide until they arrive.
Things are rough sometimes now on earth with these fragile shells, and maybe they have yet to get more rough but. . . no matter how rough things are (or the people around me are, or I am), Jesus holds it all and I trust Him.