James 11:7 Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, and comes down from the Father of lights, with whom there is no variation or shadow of turning.
Luke 11:10 For everyone who asks receives, and he who seeks finds, and to him who knocks it will be opened. 11 If a son asks for bread from any father among you, will he give him a stone? Or if he asks for a fish, will he give him a serpent instead of a fish? 12 Or if he asks for an egg, will he offer him a scorpion? 13 If you then, being evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to those who ask Him!”
John 10:10 The thief does not come except to steal, and to kill, and to destroy. I have come that they may have life, and that they may have it more abundantly.
11 “I am the good shepherd. The good shepherd gives His life for the sheep.
Psalm 37:3 Trust in the LORD, and do good;
Dwell in the land, and feed on His faithfulness.
4 Delight yourself also in the LORD,
And He shall give you the desires of your heart.
My father always decried what he called "Comfy Chair Theology." It is the method of teaching which says (basically) "Come be a Christian and everything will be sunshine and roses." He focused a lot of time and energy, therefore, on a view of the world as a war zone. He covered thoroughly the necessity of "dying to self", and "the heart is desperately wicked." My mother taught us the 11 "ologies" of Doctrine, and the nature of God.
But to say something that my one friend told me last September, like "God wants me to be happy," would have been (might still be) completely heretical. When she said it to me, I saw the sparkle in her eyes. She was at peace. She was glorying in God's presence in her life.
It didn't fit with my training. I tucked it in the back of my mind for further pondering later.
In my reading, in my new life these days, I have been finding (more and more) that God is putting little surprises into my way. Like the way the sky looks....it makes me melt. Like that funny song on the radio that is always playing whenever I walk into my room. Little things that make me gasp and remember Him.
Most of all--the peace deep in my soul, and the happiness of my life.
Yes, I just said that my life is happy.
The more I ponder it the more sense it makes. The purpose of life is not to make it through. the purpose of life is not to fight through battle after bloody, exhausting battle. The purpose of life is to GLORY. To give God glory. To glory in Him. Can you feel the abandon, the sheer happiness in the word "glory"?
GOD WANTS ME TO BE HAPPY!!!!!!!!!
Ps: today is a good day, in case you couldn't tell. I am home alone doing a couple things for my mom and the rest of the day is my own.
3 comments:
God certainly does!
Being at a joyful peace with the world (instead of fighting against it all the time) is a wonderful thing cuz God loves us. :-)
Lizzy F.
Those who take a legalistic view of scripture will always be at war with their surroundings and other people because people are not perfect. People who expect to achieve perfection and demand it of others will never be happy because there is always something to achieve, something to correct, something to DO.
To have liberty in Christ is not to abandon ourselves to becoming libertines, and I know you know this. What is difficult is that the people around you suspect that it does mean that. They tend to think that if a child is not tightly controlled they will chose to be out of control, that if they are given any discretion or freedom they will run with it into the arms of apostasy. They really have very little faith in their children and in their God. It is both sad and maddening.
I'm glad you are having a good day and that you are happy. :)
Sara
Tears are in my eyes as I type. YES! YES! YES!
God wants us to live loved! God so loves US. God so LOVES us. GOD LOVES. Ahh, contented bliss.
As I was parenting my children, we listened to nothing but Christian music. Our music was better than many religious families- we allowed ourselves Contemporary Christian music too! :)
But as my daughter became a teenager, when she was so obviously depressed and wounded (and I being still in denial about issues in our family, was mystified as to why), she would choose to listen to secular music. I saw that is was important to her, and that she was so fragile, so I gave my "permission" (Haha! She would have continued listening anyway!)
I still requested that she listen to CC radio at night, though. Couldn't trust God completely!
Well, even though she rarely listens to Christian radio anymore, and has eclectic tastes that are wide ranging over many genres, God still speaks to her through the music.
Only a few days she told me that the song "Roll to Me" came up on pop music, and she knew it was God singing to her. Her heart melted in response to His intimate love song shot like an arrow of tenderness to her open heart.
And all on secular radio!
LOLWDATWLOOAFG!
Laughing out loud with delight at the wonderful love of our amazing Father God!
Live loved, internet friends. Weeping may last for a night but joy comes in the morning, and it comes from A GOD WHO LOVES US!
n_n
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