Pain's Path

Pain is cutting a swathing path through hearts today. We hurt and deny that hurt. We assume revealing that we hurt is showing weakness that makes us more vulnerable so we lock it down pretending strength and inwardly screaming in quiet desperation. I agree, you can't go around spilling your pain on everyone. Not everyone is equipped to care for you. Not everyone cares for you! But, there is rarely a person God has not assigned another human being to help you along pain's path. This person is usually someone who can comfort you as they've been comforted because they've been there (2 Cor. 7:7) and can identify despite not exactly knowing your pain because pain truly is relevant--yours is yours and mine is mine, we are intimately acquainted with our own sources of discomfort and pain-- we don't necessarily nor always can we understand it but we do have to accept it. God knows we hurt. He knows we get the life knocked out of us and He knows it because He's been there too! Beloved, today, be a noticer. Take the time to hear someone else out or even do the hard thing and ASK, "are you okay?" and then don't just quote scriptures and pray...let them talk and don't be afraid to suggest they see a mental health professional or take them to your Pastor and make sure they're not alone in despair. 



1 Peter 5:7- “Give all your worries and cares to God, for he cares about you.”

PAIN
Let it out to
Let it go
Our misery
Is not a comfort coat
To wear
Wrapped around us
Like there’s nothing under there
To soothe,
To heal
To open up and reveal
Where in the hell
Did we learn that
Pain is something we have to hide?
Our plastered smile
“Doing fine!”
Faking free
All the while our life
Is divided
we’re held
In captivity
Beloved pain spilled out is conquered, halve
Shattered in pieces
Conquered, unearthed
Reshaped into pieces
Of acceptance
not complacent
Finally a possibility of
JOY

LEAVING LUST BEHIND- 1 John 2:16

LUST. A deceptive vice that is running rampant in society and even the Church. Its couched as a passion for, an uncontrollable urge that must be obeyed. In fact, I've been a victim of, a willing participant in and I've inflicted it upon those willing to receive it. Lust has no place in the life of the believer and Beloved today I want to educate, inspire and inform you how to recognize and defeat this foe. What is lust? An intense (above normal to the extreme degree) appetite to fulfill selfish gratification. We pridefully cover our lust in amazing ways but its main objective in life is to get you what you want, whenever and however you want it. Never a good thing when we feed our appetite whatever it wants.  Engaging in lust feels oh so good to the flesh, for a period of time. In its inception, you feel in control of whatever you're lusting for because you activate it (so you think) by choice. In the end, it grows in its demand for fulfillment, it never stays inside the lines (again, its an intense, above normal, extreme degree desire to fulfill it). Very soon, it takes the wheel, controls and tells you what to do, where to go, who to be. It oh so subtly becomes your master and you will bow or suffer. Your lust for food, drink, drugs, sex, money, talking/gossip take center stage in your life and you have to pay rapt attention.  To leave lust behind, do these things found in James 4:7-

1. Submit to God. What is submission? I've heard it best described by a minister named Charles Finney:  "an active joyful, supreme acquiescence and delight in the will of God."  He comes first, not your desires and will. Its not hard to find out what God wills if you read the Bible and if you pray. Life is so much simpler than we like to make it. Its not as hard as living any old way, trust me.

2. Don't open the door! Avoid becoming aflame with passion for something by never giving in to it in the first place. You know yourself. What gets you going and feels so good to even think about that you know its going to be trouble? You know the process. No one just hauls off and does something. You introduce it to your self, you dwell on it, you mull its possibilities THEN you commit the act. Oh Beloved don't open the door in the first place and you will avoid your mind having to FIGHT the knowledge of overeating a certain food, pornography, saying certain words (cussing/profane speaking), sex with someone you're not married to (adultery/fornication), listening to music that stimulates you, smoking/drinking or taking that pill...just don't do it in the first place. Sounds simple but its the best defense, no defense at all!

3.Resist, repent and do it time and again--okay let's be real. A sanctified, pure life in this culture is next to impossible. We fall. But we have to get back up and not use that as an excuse to give in. You resist first and foremost but if you fail and fall then you keep getting back on the NO wagon over and over again. Each resistance makes the next one easier until you're free. Lust becomes a distant and dim call if you shut it down.

Lust is just not a friend you should hang out with ever. It will come around often and in a multitude of ways. Leave lust behind. Never pick it up and never let it in.