For thought and meditation

[rl69]

The LORD is good to those who wait for Him, to the soul who seeks Him.—Lamentations 3:25 (http://harvest.us3.list-manage.com/track/click?u=4f108f827aed8d503b5fca9fa&id=92e215509e&e=3dd732485b)Have you ever lost something and searched endlessly for it? I lost my iPhone the other day. I looked everywhere for it but couldn't find it. So I used a feature called Find My iPhone. As it turned out, the phone was eight feet from where I was sitting. I had dropped it in the cushion of a chair. When I mentioned this to my son Jonathan, he said, "I've done even worse. I used it, and my phone was in my shirt pocket."

When you lose something, you search for it until you find it. God searches, too, although He doesn't lose things like we do. He knows where everything is and where everyone is. Yet He is searching for people who want to grow spiritually. He is looking for fertile, receptive soil where He can plant the seed of His Word, soil in which His Word can take root in our hearts.

God won't force His truth into our lives; He wants us to desire it. He doesn't force-feed us. As 1 Peter 2:2 tells us, "As newborn babes, desire the pure milk of the word, that you may grow thereby."

Healthy people are hungry people. If you are in good spiritual health, you will be hungry for the Word of God. A spiritual appetite is a good sign of a mature Christian. God is looking for soil like that. He is looking for people who want to hear His Word.

We are the ones who decide what kind of soil our hearts will be. We decide whether we will move forward spiritually or whether we will go backward spiritually. It is really up to us. God wants us to grow, but we must want to grow as well. There is God's part, and there is our part.

[Pine Baron]

Thank you, rl. Brings to mind, "God put the firewood there, but every man must gather and light it himself."

[Boaz]

Great and simple lesson rl69 . It's all about choice and the choices never stop . Thank you

[Blackwater]

The LORD is good to those who wait for Him, to the soul who seeks Him.


Wow! What a significant post for me right now! Some years back, I'd been searching for good answers, for a long, long time, and hadn't found them. Was looking in all the wrong places, mainly. Then, quite by accident, I found some things that started me on a path that has led me to many of the answers I'd had for a long, long time. Nothing could have meant more to me than this! And the most miraculous part of it is, that when I started finding some answers and putting them all together, it all started making sense, and I was no longer believing mainly on sheer faith and intuition. I had some real and concrete answers, and they were all fitting together just like in a jigsaw puzzle! And then the "miraculous" part. These things apparently changed my attitude, and I started just having things occur to me that expanded what I'd been discovering, as though they came out of nowhere! It was as though I'd finally prepared my soul well enough that the light just simply shone in, and expanded what I'd discovered, and didn't seem to come of any source within me, but by simple grace! It'd just hit me out of the blue, when I wasn't even thinking about theology or anything religious in nature. It just seemed to appear out of nowhere, in a practical sense, at least.

So, after years and years of trying to ferret out the answers MY way, they seemed to simply be given to me by grace, and out of thin air! I may not be the brightest or quickest to catch on, but I CAN be very persistent and don't abandon significant pursuits easily nor lightly. So your title above really hits me in what's still a soft spot for me. God truly DOES reward those who seek Him, and His Truth, and He does it when we're ready for it, and not necessarily when we think and hope we are, and are seeking it. If we simply prepare our souls, the answers seem to come to us from beyond our own volition and efforts. And that, I find amazing, and yet another proof that my faith is well and rightly placed.

Thanks for a thought that means an awful lot to me these days.

[GhostHawk]

Blackwater I like to believe that sometimes the Lord helps those who are a little on the slow side. Myself included in that.

Sometimes I think that he may look down on us much as we look upon our dog.
Now that little pup of mine is mostly just a great little guy. A solid company, intelligent, easy going, wants to please. But every now and then it seems like he feels like he has not been getting what he wants, or believe he deserves and he will act out in bad ways.

Now I know the lord has been as angry at me at times just as I know how angry I have been at that little pup of mine. I ussually manage to restrain myself from kicking him across the room. But boy have I wanted to.

Lord, I know full well that you know what is in my heart and mind.
Lord, I know at times you may have wished you could kick me across the state.

The good news is that after all is said and done, punishment meted out, and forgiveness on both sides shown. Well that pup just about climbs inside trying to get close. And he'd like to lick my face clean off. Life for the 2 of us for the next couple of weeks tends to be pretty sweet. Loving and being loved, sharing that with everyone who comes into our space.

Lord, I feel the same as that pup sometimes when I finally figure something out you have been trying to teach me.

Faith, hope, and love, and the greatest of these is love.

I believe the more we love the more he can love us.

Hope this was not too far off topic.

Love you brothers!

[Pine Baron]

Thanks Ghost, I've learned more about unconditional love from my dogs than from any one person, and that's the truth.

[claude]

+1 what GH said. I have many times thought just those thoughts.

[buckwheatpaul]

Our free choice is what brings us to God....or pushes us away from Him. If we surround ourselves with those doing the right thing then we are more likely to follow that path.....the path we choose starts with our parents and family and after about age 6 to 8 years we begin to be affected more and more by our friends and the company we keep. Hopefully, our parents and friends have our best interest at heart and then the lessons we learn along the way strengthen our resolve to follow God and Jesus.....

[Blackwater]

Great comments all! I think my problem earlier was simply that I had too much faith in my own devisings, and too little in God's. And that's likely, I think, why he withheld what I so ardently (and probably too proudly) sought. Christ always loved the little children, and I've come to think it's because they're devoid of haughtiness and are so completely genuine, and devoid of deception of themselves or anyone around them. I always find it refreshing to be around the young, and I think that's what amuses and impresses me most about them.

And +1 on the dogs! I've always been a "dog man" since I was very young, and learned to identify with them and train them pretty well along the way. Like us, they can be willful, but consistency and persistence, like our Lord has with us (me in particular?), just seems to work where nothing else seems to. A carrot on a stick will only get you just so far. Love has no limits, either between men or between man and dog. Amazing how all this works, isn't it?