When I sin

The Lord has been teaching me over the past year to learn to praise Him and thank Him as a response to trials. Just recently, actually very randomly I have been challenged in this, "When I sin what is my first response?"
Do I try to fix myself?
Do I turn to someone else to help me?
Do I feel sorry for myself?
Do I punish myself?
Do I run myself down?
Do I give up and throw in the towel?
or
Do I turn to the Lord for forgiveness? Do I cry out to Him from the darkness of my sin?

If I am not turning to the Lord as my first response that could possibly indicate that I am not trusting Him as my Savior. Yeah, maybe sometimes I eventually come around, but usually my first response indicates what is really in my heart. If eventually I come around to God, it's usually because I have tried the other things to fix the problem first, then I have come to the end of my rope and give GOd a try.

Do I really believe I John 1:9? Do I really believe He is willing to forgive me no matter what? Do I really believe His forgiveness is unconditionally offered to me at anytime? Do I really believe that He remembers my sins no more?

More willpower?

I get so frustrated with myself sometimes when I return to the same old sin. Repeating and repeating. Suffering the consequences for it and the guilt all over again. I have been trying to figure out why I can't get myself to choose not to do that same sin.
Well, recently the Lord revealed something to me that I just hadn't connected before. So often we think it's about having more will power or determination. Or more help from God. But as I think this through I have come to realize that there is nothing at all wrong with my will power or with the power of the Holy Spirit inside of me. I have a very strong will and it's very much alive and active. The problem really lies within my desires and my thoughts. Maybe desires that have become more important to me than obeying God. Or sinful thoughts that have become a part of who I am. I have a very strong will, it's just dysfunctional because of my desires and thoughts.
It's not about mustering up more determination or receiving more of God's help or power. It's about my desires. If I had desires to obey God and my thoughts were like having the mind of Christ I believe this would make it alot easier to have a healthy will.
So, I think from now on, instead of trying harder I am going to take a few steps back and ask God to show me what desires are in my heart that led me into sin. I am going to retrace my steps and find out where I first had the wrong thought. Where I processed something wrong. I can use Philippians 4:8 to help evaluate if my thoughts are right or not.

Pursuit of Happiness?

I am still thinking on this happiness vs contentment thing. The more I dig in scripture the more I see verses like, "Happy are the people whose GOd is their Lord." So it got me thinking how God does want us to be happy. But I think that perhaps where we get messed up is when we go pursuing happiness through the world rather than in Him. In the verse I mentioned I believe the key word would be LORD. Making God my LORD. If I pursue making Him my LORD then I will find happiness. But I don't know if this type of happiness is the same as the emotional state of happiness? Maybe it is...maybe it is a state of delight in Him? And that delight effects our faith? Maybe when I am actively pursuing Him as LORD of my life through obedience I will find joy AND happiness. SO maybe the more I am happy in HIM the more content I will be. I Think there is a connection...but the more I find myself happy in the world with the temporary the less content I will be because those temporary things lose their fun pretty quick. And they are just not very satisfying. Drinking of the Lord is what will satisfy my soul.
Di

Being Happy is that the same as being content?

I was thinking about something. Actually it's about a lesson I learned the hard way. It is how to be content. Being content isn't being happy. But sometimes I would get that mixed up in the way I thought. I would wind up chasing after things that would make me happy and ended up pretty miserable. I guess the reason that I would be miserable is because everything in the world is temporary...therefore, everything only has a temporary happiness. The flip side of that? Since everything is temporary, everything has temporary sadness too--that's a good thing :-). The only true happiness or contentment is found in serving the Lord...that's because those things we do for the Lord and the spiritual blessings He gives to us are all eternal, therefore they have an eternal happiness or contentment. The pursuit of righteousness and holiness will bring contentment.
It's easy to get caught up in pursuing the things in the world. They are easy to see...in fact they are easy to get our hands on right away. The crazy thing about that? The minute I get my hands on those earthly treasures that I thought would make me happy, they tend to disappear in my hands. The happiness they bring might last for a little while, but then I find myself moving onto the next thing. Looking for happiness again.
Matthew 6:33 has been a very important verse in my life. "Seek ye first the kingdom of God and His righteousness and all these other things (what we need) will be added unto you."
My job is to focus in on seeking the things that are found in the kingdom of God--you know, the things of eternal value and seeking His righteousness in my life...when I do this He just takes care of everything else.

Trusting God with my heart--not others

I wonder, if I would just embrace God's faithfulness and promises. If I would just trust my heart totally to him. If I would just believe that He is all I really need. If I would seek Him digently with all my heart...would I seek another? Ever?



“It is a very easy thing for us to get into a desponding state of heart, and to mistrust the promises and faithfulness of God, and yet, all the while, to look upon ourselves as the subjects of a disease which we cannot help, and even to claim pity at the hands of our fellow-men, and to think that they should condole us, and try to cheer us. Perhaps they should; but, at any rate, we must not think that they should. It will be far wiser for each one of us to feel, ‘This unbelief of mine is a great wrong in the sight of God. He has never given me any occasion for it, and I am doing him a cruel injustice by thus doubting him.’” Charles Spurgeon