07/06/2019
The saying below prompted some thoughts today. Adversity really does cause you to examine what you stand for. Being challenged should w**d out the junk and produce fresh thinking and standards that you want to live by.
Of course after being sifted a few years with adversity I personally have come to understand there really is only one set of beliefs that will stand the test of time and that's God's standards written in His Holy Bible.. His parameters.. His boundary lines. I also have found that your love for God will set boundary lines on your behavior so you need that loving relationship with Him. I have found that through suffering you learn obedience just as Jesus did. He lived by faith looking to God His Father on earth just as we do.
Hebrews 5:7-8 AMP
In the days of His earthly life, Jesus offered up both [specific] petitions and [urgent] supplications [for that which He needed] with fervent crying and tears to the One who was [always] able to save Him from death, and He was heard because of His reverent submission toward God [His sinlessness and His unfailing determination to do the Father’s will]. 8 Although He was a Son [who had never been disobedient to the Father], He learned [active, special] obedience through what He suffered.
I think we really shouldn't balk at God allowing adversity in our lives along the way because it really is His grace and mercy to begin the sifting early on in our lives. Because at the end when the great sifting comes it will put you on one side or the other for all of eternity.
Matthew 13:24-30
Jesus gave them another parable [to consider], saying, “The kingdom of heaven is like a man who sowed good seed in his field. 25 But while his men were sleeping, his enemy came and sowed w**ds [resembling wheat] among the wheat, and went away. 26 So when the plants sprouted and formed grain, the w**ds appeared also. 27 The servants of the owner came to him and said, ‘Sir, did you not sow good seed in your field? Then how does it have w**ds in it?’ 28 He replied to them, ‘An enemy has done this.’ The servants asked him, ‘Then do you want us to go and pull them out?’ 29 But he said, ‘No; because as you pull out the w**ds, you may uproot the wheat with them. 30 Let them grow together until the harvest; and at harvest time I will tell the reapers, “First gather the w**ds and tie them in bundles to be burned; but gather the wheat into my barn.” ’ ”
Some have asked me why would God allow the wicked to thrive alongside of the righteous? Why does he allow seemingly bad people to be rich and wealthy and run the world when He is against wickedness? Vs 29 clearly states he doesn't want to accidentally destroy some of the righteous as collateral damage trying to w**d out the wicked . Jesus gives an indepth answer in Matthew 13:37-43.
It's pretty simple really Jesus is the one sowing the good seed. The field is the world. The Good Seed that he sows are His followers and the w**ds are the ones sown by the devil. The Harvest is the end of the age and the ones that reap are the Angels that will be sent out to gather up all things that offend and burn them and ultimately..
43 Then the righteous [those who seek the will of God] will shine forth [radiating the new life] like the sun in the kingdom of their Father. He who has ears [to hear], let him hear and heed My words.
Be encouraged and strengthened knowing that this is the sifting that we all long for and keep watching for. As part of the ones seeking The Will of God your future is beautifully divine.
Love you...Marsha
