Showing posts with label bondage. Show all posts
Showing posts with label bondage. Show all posts

Saturday, September 10, 2011

the place most people make unwise decisions…

where do you need wisdom right now?  what’s the big decision in your life?  is it a career decision?  marriage?  kids?  church membership?  an investment?

it’s interesting that james, in 1.5-8 and 9-11, gives us a practical application of where we need wisdom.  of all the areas that james could have chosen to give as an example, he chose money.  why?  because more people make unwise decisions and foolish choices regarding their finances than almost anything else in the world.  more people are double minded and unstable when it comes to dollars than any other area.

i see so many CHRISTians in financial bondage because they violated GOD’s principles and the point that james is making in these verses is that regardless of poverty or prosperity we all need to realize that wealth is temporary and won’t last forever.  JESUS said you can’t serve two masters.  you can’t love money and GOD at the same time.  we need to decide.  have we made up our mind what we’re going to save, to spend, tithing, giving, those kind of things?

what is james saying?  he is saying that you are either going to be living this life by choice or by chance.  either based on circumstances where you are a victim of your circumstances; where you let everything batter you back and forth or you will chose to make choices.

listen, the quality of your life is determined by the decisions and choices you make and the wisdom that is behind those decisions and choices.  james is saying that when we do not trust GOD it produces a lifestyle of instability in our lives.  the cause of all the frustration in my life is not my indecision over the job, the marriage, my kids, my health although those are important.  there is a deeper issue and that is my inability to trust GOD and lay it all in HIS hands and ask for wisdom.

just a thought from the front porch…

Wednesday, July 20, 2011

in bondage to unforgiveness...

judah is a forerunner of JESUS and the end of the story is better than the beginning.

maybe you had a tough beginning in your story of life.  maybe you made some real mistakes like judah did.  but when i read the story of judah i say, “here’s a man of faith!”  people can look at you the same way even if you had a tough beginning. 

genesis 45.7 (niv) joseph reveals himself to his brothers.  he weeps loudly.  he says to his brothers, “i am joseph.  is my father still living? GOD sent me ahead of you to preserve for you a remnant on the earth to save your lives by a great deliverance.” 

forgiveness?  he’s able to say, “i understand what GOD’s doing.  HE didn’t send me here for my greatness.  HE sent me here to save your lives.”  that’s forgiveness.  that’s a man who’s come to a point in his life that he not only sees GOD’s hand at work and he’s able to say i forgive somebody else.  but because of GOD’s grace in his life, he’s able to see how GOD wants to use him in the life that HE’s forgiven.

you’re probably not there yet but joseph’s life tells us that you can be there.  it took him thirteen years of faith to get there.  you can be there.  if you’re in bondage to unforgiveness it colors everything.  it colors your attitudes, it colors your actions, everything.

how do you break out of that bondage of unforgiveness?  simple.  forgive.  you say, “i’d love to forgive, how?” 

write on a sheet of paper everything GOD’s forgiven you for.  and look at it everyday if you’re having a hard time forgiving somebody.

pray for the person that you have an unforgiving attitude toward every day.  at the beginning you may be praying for them to die!  but at least talk to GOD about them.  start to talk to GOD about them every day.

it’s not going to happen in a day it’s not going to happen in two days.  it’s probably not even going to happen in a month but if you’re struggling with unforgiveness that’s the way to break those bonds. 

some of you are thinking, “i don’t want to do that!”  there’s the real issue!  sometimes we just don’t want to forgive.  we don’t want to let go.  but the truth is that GOD has forgiven us so much, how can we hold unforgiveness in our hearts towards anyone else when you start to look at what HE’s forgiven us for. 

just a thought from the front porch…