Psalms 47: 4  He decides the extent of our inheritance and selects the land where we and our children will live, for we are the pride of Jacob, the ones He loves.

 

God has already determined.. before we were ever born.. what our inheritance will be... what the inheritance of our children will be...

 

the question for us it the same as with the prodigal son.. will we manage all God gives us faithfully? or will we squander it all...

 

for me personally... I have begun to manage the spiritual inheritance better than I did in the past.... a man I know told me I used to 'pimp my gifts' rather than invest them in the kingdom.. I have tried to stop doing that... now my financial inheritance is another story... whatever the reason.. God has proven Himself over and over.. and I have failed over and over.. yet I tend to go with my own ways in finance rather than His... but in Jesus name.. I will begin to do better with that too..

 

one day I desire to be all that God has called me to be.. and I will have to walk there on a day by day basis...

Colossians 3: 15 ¹⁵ And let the peace that comes from Christ rule in your hearts. For as members of one body you are called to live in peace. And always be thankful.

this is the scripture I woke up to this morning and I thought... sheesh! we are to live in peace with everyone... if Christ's peace rules in our body... we will be at peace with others.. now I agree with this as a general statement.. I am not as argumentative as I used to be.. but I am still argumentative.. and this situation with this guy from my job driving me berserk tells me that I can still get set off... easily... and quickly... so if I have peace of God ruling within me.. why do I forfeit that for that momentary anger I wonder?

it states as members of one body we are called to live in peace.. we are called to it... somewhat like commanded I am thinking.. again... this is is as a general way to live.. but you have those couple sandpaper people in your life... and imagine the sandpaper people live within your own house... that makes it so much harder to be at peace with them if they are constantly trying to pick at you and get you to react... for me.. it isn't even about an action anymore.. it is more of a reaction... I react to what someone else does.. there was a time that I was acting out.. but it has now become a reaction so that is some progress but surely not where I want to be...

and always be thankful.. this has become my motto in life... I have lived through some dramatic and traumatic things in this life.. and now I am just so thankful.. for the good days and for the bad ones! God has TRULY been good to me.. above and beyond what I could ever think or imagine...

I was reading the 'daily bread' this morning and it was talking about a woman whose mother has alzheimer's and she has slowly deteriorated and the woman says that through this experience she has learned what true love really is... she has learned that you stay through the good and the bad... that you continue to show love regardless of how annoyed you may be... that you love unconditionally.. and even though her mother has lost much of her memory and movement.. she is able to remember that under the person she now looks at.. is the person that she always knew... and she is able to love the person she has always been in spite of what she now sees...

 

and I was thinking... we have all had situations in our lives where it was not easy to love someone... and for me personally.. in the past.. I would just walk away... but I know that is not God's version of love.. we don't just stop dealing with people because they are hard to deal with..

 

don't misunderstand me.. I am not saying we are to stay in abusive relationships or unhealthy ones.. but we walk away from people so easily... I have brothers and sisters I haven't talked to in 23yrs because I was with a black man.. and my kids are black.. how ridiculous is that? that is not the love that God intended for us to have or to show others... God's love is constant.. it is not based on our actions.. it is not based on our feelings.. if we could learn to love as God does.. we could change the world...

 

corinthians 13: love is patient, love is kind.. love is neverending and it never fails.

Romans 6: ¹⁸ Now you are free from your slavery to sin, and you have become slaves to righteous living.

I think this is a battle we all face at some time... we stop living for Christ and live instead for the laws.. not intentionally... not even recognizing it.. but this is when we become judgemental and harsh...

I think we see how far we have come and look at someone else and wonder what is wrong with them that they can't seem to get it together.. even if these words don't come out of our mouths.. we still think them...

and at that point.. we have stopped living in Christ's love and began living in the law... looking to the actions of the physical body rather than the emotions of the heart... someone's heart may be right with God.. but sometimes they have an issue they don't seem able to get over.. sometimes it seems they don't even want to get over it... but it is not our place to judge either the person and their actions or their relationship with God...

truly we have enough trouble keeping our own heart pure and cannot afford to be worried about anyone else's condition of the heart..

John 3: ¹⁹ And the judgment is based on this fact: God’s light came into the world, but people loved the darkness more than the light, for their actions were evil. ²⁰ All who do evil hate the light and refuse to go near it for fear their sins will be exposed. ²¹ But those who do what is right come to the light so others can see that they are doing what God wants.”

 

I can remember when I was loving the darkness more than the light... I didn't want many of my actions to be exposed.. I would stay away from people or places that could 'expose' me...

 

now that I live in the light I no longer have fear of being exposed.. there is nothing hidden now... I am not trying to look one way and sneak to do something else... so today I can live fully in the light.. both the light of people's eyes and the Light of God...

 

I pray that others can see my life and desire to make a change not based on me.. but based on all the changes that God has made within me... both inside and in my actions...

I was praying/meditating with God this morning.. and I realized.. I can now go into a relationship with a man because of God's great love for me... not because of a man's great love for me.. but because of God's... I used to use the excuse of God loving me so great.. why would I want to add a man to it and allow him to mess it up... today I realize that he wouldn't mess it up... he would be an outlet for this great love of God within me to overflow and touch the man God chooses..

Philippians 4: ⁷ Then you will experience God’s peace, which exceeds anything we can understand. His peace will guard your hearts and minds as you live in Christ Jesus. ⁸ And now, dear brothers and sisters, one final thing. Fix your thoughts on what is true, and honorable, and right, and pure, and lovely, and admirable. Think about things that are excellent and worthy of praise. ⁹ Keep putting into practice all you learned and received from me—everything you heard from me and saw me doing. Then the God of peace will be with you.

 

this morning.. the man that has been annoying me so badly at work... says something ridiculous about/to someone else in an email and I am copied on it.. my instinct.. my human nature wanted to say something smart to someone else about him... just to push the knife in the reality that he is an idiot... and Jesus stops me.. and tells me to focus my thoughts on that which is true and honorable and right and pure and lovely and admirable... thinking about things that are excellent and worthy of praise... so I did not make the comment that I desired to make... I said nothing at all because it did not need to be said...

 

I wonder... if we could take our focus off of ourselves... not just for a minute to get our head right.. but really stop focusing on ourselves for the long haul.... I think we would feel so much better... if I sit and think all day about how annoying this man is... and I admit that many times on a wednesday as my entire payroll is pushed late because of him.. I do fall into that... but... is it going to change my situation? no.. I am going to have to walk through this.. and I have a choice.. either I will walk around mad half my life... or I will recognize that this is just a trial or test.. and my job is to be the best me I can be at the time... I am done letting this stupid man control my attitude and feelings and joy... yes.. I said joy.. peace too if I am honest.. because I cannot have peace and joy along with an attitude...

 

this is my new motto for life: I will fix my thoughts on what is true, and honorable, and right, and pure, and lovely, and admirable. Thinking about things that are excellent and worthy of praise. ⁹ Keep putting into practice all I learned and received about God and His goodness—everything you heard from Him and saw Him doing. Then the God of peace will be with me.

I remember a time that I was thinking that peace of mind is priceless... well it STILL is PRICELESS!