God Will Take Action on Your Behalf

The Lord hears the cries of the oppressed, he sees injustice, and He answers the prayers of those who cry out to Him with broken hearts.  This is why it is better to be wronged, weak, and yet obedient; these things assure that the Lord will intervene for you.  And how astoundingly, amazingly, sweet to know that the God who controls the wind and the lightning is taking action on your behalf!  That sweetness is now yours and will be yours in increasing measure in the future.  You can trust Him to make things right; all the desires of your heart are safe in His hands.  

Avoid Solitude

The best songs are written in the midst of life, as the result of living.  The least valuable songs come from solitude and reflection.  Use your solitude to pray, write what you learn from the Lord, and live your life in active engagement with others.  In this way you will be productive until the end, and better prepared for eternity.  Yes, Child, living takes energy and dying takes preparation.  God will provide both the energy you need, and the time required for good preparation for the end of earthly life.  The Lord is with you.  

"And let us consider how we may spur one another on toward love and good deeds,  not giving up meeting together, as some are in the habit of doing, but encouraging one another—and all the more as you see the Day approaching" (Hebrews 10:24-25).  

How to Respond to Disrespect

When you are given little to respect you need to do three things:  One--and this is most important--love (love covers a multitude of shortcomings).  Two, look for the good, no matter how small, and respond to it as though it is the whole person.  And three, remember that since you are in this circumstance, the Lord is the One who has placed you there. 

Do not work hard to love others by attempting to emulate the highest standard of human love you know.  You are to love them as God has loved you.

"But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us" (Romans 5:8). 

Flowing with the Spirit

The cadence of God's voice reverberates in and out of time, and to flow with the Holy Spirit is to keep pace with God's voice.  When you walk according to the Spirit, you will not often be in step with the world, but attention to the Holy Spirit's leading is protective. God's wisdom will guide you to safe harbor when the world's "wisdom" would place you in harm's way. 

Trying to pay equal attention to God's voice and also to the world's demands will result in the instability of confusion.  "You cannot serve two masters" (Matthew 6:24).  Hearing God's Word but failing to put it into practice has a similar result (Luke 6:49). 

Pray to put into practice the good guidance that flows from the Holy Spirit within you.  He will never lead you astray.  Obey the Lord and leave the results of that obedience in His hands, even when you must turn your back on the opinions and judgments of other human beings.  The Lord will be your advocate (1 John 2:1). 

Sin

Sin makes the sweetest drink bitter and the bitter intolerable.  Forgiven sin (the clean heart that results) makes even the bitter sweet.  

"Blessed is the one whose transgressions are forgiven, whose sins are covered" (Psalm 32:1).  

Embrace Humility

The constraints that hold you are not external, but internal.  Rebellion has a characteristic stench; skirt a wide path around it.  Humility is protective; embrace it. 

"For by the grace given me I say to every one of you: Do not think of yourself more highly than you ought, but rather think of yourself with sober judgment, in accordance with the faith God has distributed to each of you" (Romans 12:3).  

"Be completely humble and gentle; be patient, bearing with one another in love"  (Ephesians 4:2).  

"All of you, clothe yourselves with humility toward one another, because, 'God opposes the proud but shows favor to the humble'" (1 Peter 5:5).  

 

Not Your Own

The Lord is with you, not because of any merit of your own, but because of His love. Past, present, and future, His all encompassing, full coverage love surrounds you.  God's love for you depends upon Him, not you. 

This love edifies, lifts, and grants you status in His eyes; status that is not of you, but of Him. Love is His gift to you, so that you have no reason for pride.  It is possible to be humbled and simultaneously glorified by God's love, but you must remember the glory in which you participate is God's glory and not your own. 

Do not fall to the snares of success.  Humble yourself before God, and He will lift you up.  Serve others, and He will cause you to be served, not for your own sake, but for His.  There is no task too small (inconsequential) for you to perform.  Scrub toilets, mop floors, serve others,  and do not think of yourself more highly than you ought.   

Your beauty is not your own.  Bear it with humility, trusting the One who has given you strength.  God is with you.

"Do not think of yourself more highly than you ought, but rather think of yourself with sober judgment, in accordance with the faith God has distributed to each of you" (Romans 12:3).  

"But we have this treasure in jars of clay to show that this all-surpassing power is from God and not from us" (2 Corinthians 4:7).