On our senior class trip, we went to a beautiful christian camp in one of the Carolinas...I think North. It was great...open sky, beautiful mountains...everything you could think of to do...Well, one of our activities pretty early in the week was to hike up the mountain and once getting there to play a whole bunch of games. There were three ways to get to the base of the mountain, since a river divided it from the main land...1. bridge (that's the one I wanted to choose)...2. tight rope with rope railings (still not a bad choice) and 3. swinging across the river on a rope like Tarzan (bad, bad, bad, bad choice) Anyways, the teacher that brought us as our counselor insisted that everyone cross Tarzan style...I was the last one to go and told him that I was definately not going to make it across because I have zero upper body strength...but he insisted and told me that if I fall in then he would jump in. I lasted about two seconds on that rope....and we both spent time hiking the mountain in wet sneakers.
Do you ever feel like you are "out of rope"? Your hands are slipping and you just wish that you chose one of your "other options"? This can be applied to anything...your job, your relationships, school, your marriage....there are a lot of decisions to make in life and so there are a lot of opportunities to feel..."cold in the river", but before making a decision that could possibly change your life for the worse ask yourself a few questions and REALLY think about the answers. Don't just make decisions based on an emotional feeling because after all, life is about a lot more then the way we feel...
What is the most important thing in life? What is life's purpose?
Do you want to glorify God?
Would your decision glorify God? In what ways?
Would it make Him happy?
How would He benefit?
Could Satan be glorified in any way?
Would it make him happy?
Would he benefit?
What are the long-term results?
What would you gain?
What would you lose?
Do you believe God can help you?
Will you let Him?
A lot of times, we go through life seeking our own pleasure and conveniently forget that God created us for His. If we purposely remind ourselves of this, would we make better decisions? Would we heal our marriages understanding that destroying it would bring no glory to God and no benefits to His kingdom? That is just one example. We make decisions everyday that alter God's best plan for us...Let's think about pleasing God before selfishly pleasing ourselves. A person that I look up to a great deal, once told me that when you do something first because it is the obedient thing to do...the feelings will soon follow.
Maybe it is important to have a rope-hugging Tarzan style of faith....
i like the part your wrote "would we stop ending our marriages if we knew it was hurting God and helping satan" or something like that. this is just what I needed today, thank you:).
ReplyDeleteI really enjoyed your blog today. It was very inspiring and made me think. Thank you :)
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