Pondering Age and the Age

Pondering Age and the Age - Jesse Underwood -

jesseund@gmail.com

 

As I age, I ponder just what age does to a person other than the obvious signs of age, i.e. wrinkles, hearing loss, memory loss, etc.

         

With some folks, age mellows and with a proper attitude can be a reflection of many good and happy memories. However, some that struggle with a negative attitude may have some good but many bad memories.

 

One might glean from this observation that (good) attitude is crucial. One might ask, how then do I develop a "good" attitude?  There are many books available (I am not endorsing any of these books) about changing your thinking such as: Change Your Thinking", Transform Your Life, The Power of Positive Thinking, How to Think Positive, The Power of Positive Thinking, and many others available from bookstores. All these books deal with attitude, but almost none deal with the real and crucial answer. For a true and honest good attitude, one needs only to accept that Jesus Christ loves us unconditionally and will forgive all our failing and insecurities. Once we yield ourselves to Jesus, then His attitude becomes our own!

 

Allow me to digress for a moment to address a critical point: God with all His power and sovereign rights will NOT violate any persons choice to believe or not believe in Him or His power. Any person has the right to accept or reject the concept or belief in God.

 

Now don't be mistaken to believe as some have taught, that all our troubles will be over once we commit ourselves to Jesus, that is simply not the truth. We, as long as we live on this earth will have trials and tribulations. The bible teaches that we may not avoid trouble, or go around it, but that He would be with us THROUGH it. The wisdom of the Lord shows through here. If He just removed the trouble, allowed us to go around the trouble, then what would we have learned? No, in His wisdom He allows us the pain of going THROUGH the trouble, hence we learn to trust Him and His wisdom.  The wonderful and truthful news is that we can overcome and be joyful in spite of troubles and persecution, because we have a PROMISE of Jesus insuring that He will never leave nor forsake us and that we will enjoy an everlasting life with Him! 

         

There is a very troubling time that is coming upon this earth (soon) and many believe that we who accept Jesus as our Lord and savior and the Messiah will escape this tribulation coming upon the earth prophesied in several books of the bible. There are others who believe that we will go through this tribulation, but with the strength given to us through Christ, we believers will prevail even though we may have to be martyred.  In my own opinion (which carries no weight), I believe that the righteous will not have to face the judgment of God that is coming upon this earth. I may be wrong, however the point is we need to ready (in a true relationship, with God) in any event.

         

I have discovered that life is a time of trials. How we handle these trials dictates whether we experience joy or bitterness. All trials are hard to bear, but these trials, I have learned, develop character. Character development makes us more like Christ...very pleasing to God. If we truly love Jesus, we can than expect trials to come our way. Paul in his teaching in the bible encourages us to be content in ALL our circumstances good or bad. Paul (one chosen by Jesus to do many things for the kingdom of God) experienced all kinds of hardships, beatings, shipwreck, prison, etc. but he never complained, but only looked forward to seeing the face of Jesus! If Paul had to experience all these things, should we expect to face anything less? Think about this when things are not going well with us...is it a trial or are we just complaining?

         

When things are going bad, suck it up, pray about it and then turn it loose! Give it to God. Easy to say, you might inject, but if you will truly do it through faith, taking all of it out of your own endeavors (trying to solve it by your own means), and giving it to God, you will be amazed at what will happen. I can personally witness to this in my own life...it has happened many times....God is faithful if we only let Him loose to do His will!

 

We, however, will tie God's hands (He will not violate our will) when we try to do what we think best or even try to do only what God can do! It seems that we struggle to really believe that He will do what He says He can and will do! How is it that we believe that God created all things and yet doubt that He will do what He says that He will do? Unbelievable! Lord help us to believe!! The enemy of our soul really works hard to bolster our unbelief.

 

We can battle unbelief by reading and studying, absorbing God's word. The more we read the bible the more we can comprehend God's character and that will build our faith! The message here is READ, READ the bible...it is a living thing that will build faith!

 

Unbelief ..... that is the crux of our problem. May God heal our unbelief!

 

 

PRAYER:

 

Oh Lord our God, forgive our complaining....you have blessed us so, and we would be negligent if we did not praise you for what you have done for us! Please forgive us. We have a tendency to be complacent, expecting things to go along as they always have....what folly,  we do this from day to day, not examining the sign of the times.  We do not want to be like the Israelites during their exodus from Egypt, complaining all the way. Help us oh Lord to give praise to you, for you have done marvelous things on our behalf. Your love is boundless and we thank you and with all our hearts, we praise and thank you for you are truly worthy of our praise! Lord we know not what lies before us, the world events are such that no one knows what to expect next, but you pointed out in Mat: 24 that we should know by the signs of the times that the end is near. Help us, oh Lord, to be ready as shown by the parable of the 10 virgins awaiting their bridegroom that we may have our lamps (hearts) ready for your soon coming! Lord may our nation realize that we have turned our backs on you..Lord may our nation repent and turn once again to you that you may heal our nation, for it says in your word if we would turn and repent that you would heal our land. Lord, may it be so.

 

Oh Lord, know that we love you with all that is within us...Come soon.

 

 

 

 

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