Verse of the Day: Obey those who rule over you, and be submissive, for they watch out for your souls, as those who must give account. Let them do so with joy and not with grief, for that would be unprofitable for you.—Hebrews 13:17
Memory of the Month: 2 Corinthians 5:17
Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; old things have passed away; behold, all things have become new.
Today's reading: DEUTERONOMY 32-34 MARK 15:26-47
Everyone Has Some
There is a triangle to separate a turn lane from flowing traffic at a place we call five points in our town. For decades it has been filled with shrubs. It was a piece of life in all that pavement and traffic. The city razed it. It now, so far, is just bare, ugly dirt. We assume the city or state will do something. I have not heard one person who likes the fact that the shrubs are gone. They did not do anything-they just sat there and had life.
Some were infuriated. I quietly was one of those. How dare they? They did not ask me. (Grief over having no control)
A lot of people feel this way when things change and they do not have any control of it. That is called grief-ever heard of it?
Everyone in the world has experienced grief. How can I say that? We started as babies. When we did not get what we wanted, we responded the only way we could-we made noise. This was our only way of controlling things.
Do you ever remember being disciplined as a young child and not being disappointed or even furious? No one wanted discipline. It was out of our control. This is anger in a grieving process.
Part of our maturation process is to understand better how to handle grief. We no longer, most of us, throw fits and cry when we lose or break one of our toys. But lifetimes are spent in much effort to assure us of success-to feel good about ourselves as opposed to 'feeling bad'. Depression comes from grieving over perceived failure. We grieve over not being what we wanted to become and become depressed. Life did not turn out the way we wanted so our 'fit' is now depression.(Of course, there are those who medically need support for chemical imbalances, we do not speak of them here.)
My wife moves my chair while I'm gone. Do I throw a fit or become depressed? Nope. Learned better. Got used to it. It is not worth the grief.
The fruit of the Spirit: love, joy, peace, patience, Kindness, goodness; faithfulness, gentleness, self-control.
A lifetime of getting through hurt-we will either learn how to deal with grief or we will not. We will either learn how to control our emotions or we will not.
Jesus asked His Father to take away the cup he was about to drink-His horrible crucifixion- but He accepted the Father's will and died. Jesus went through grief before He died. He sweated blood for us. He was sick to death. It says it all there in scripture.
Some fight the idea of coming to Jesus because they realize that they must relinquish their control-they must give it all to Jesus. It is hard for us to confess-we must give it all to Jesus. It is hard to follow Jesus daily-we must take up our cross-we must die everyday to self control and let Him have control.
God's truth is that we are either under His control or the control of the enemy(Matthew 6:24). We follow God in obedience or we do things the way the world tells us to conform(Romans 12:2).
It is for freedom we have been made free(Galatians 5:1). Free from what? Free from the fight for control-free from grieving over stuff that does not eternally matter. We are set free from sin. But, we still sin and then grieve over it until we confess it.
The grief of losing someone we love is still the greatest grief from which we cannot escape. But we do not grieve as those who have no hope.
1 Thessalonians 4:13 ►Brothers and sisters, we do not want you to be uninformed about those who sleep in death, so that you do not grieve like the rest of mankind, who have no hope.
But, we cannot control the hurt. This grief cannot be stopped.
Jesus wept, John 11:35. He wept even though He knew he was about to raise Lazarus from the dead. But, He wept. I believe one reason this is recorded is to give us permission to weep -to grieve. On the other hand, Jesus loved His friend and simply cried.
There is nothing simple about learning to live under God's control. It is hard work but in the process of learning, we learn the freedom to not grieve over stuff that really does not matter. We can walk through anything because He said He would never leave us-and He will be with us every second.
All this is to encourage us all: the next time our inner child wants to throw a fit because we have lost control of a change around us, the control is in the hands of God almighty-if not, throw it to Him like a red-hot iron and rest in His strength-the strength that went through the crucifixion. The strength it took to see His own Son die for all of us sinners. Eternal strength that is His and, in Christ, is ours.
God feels every pain-all our pain.
1 Peter 5:6 Humble yourselves, therefore, under God’s mighty hand, that he may lift you up in due time. 7 Cast all your anxiety on him because he cares for you.
...because He loves us...
Father in Heaven,
Forgive me for hanging on to my control. It is Yours. All power is Yours. Thank You for sharing it with me. Let me learn more and more to live in Your freedom.
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