All About GOD - Growing Relationships with Jesus and Others
Proverbs 18:21
Death and life are in the power of the tongue,
And those who love it will eat its fruit.
I would like thoughts on what this means to you.
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Permalink Reply by Seek on
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He's spoken of it in a couple of his sermons at least. He talks about how he had a small group of friends meet with him to help him figure out what was going on. It was during this that someone brought up something about his father and Stanley realized that he always said he knew God loved him, but deep down, he didn't really know it until that day.
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Permalink Reply by David Velasquez on
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Good word Jenny - :) Love you sis.
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Char,
Your post reminded me of this song :
A thousand times I've failed
Still Your mercy remains
And should I stumble again
I'm caught in Your grace
Everlasting
Your light will shine when all else fades
Never ending
Your glory goes beyond all fame
Your will above all else
My purpose remains
The art of losing myself
In bringing You praise
Everlasting
Your light will shine when all else fades
Never ending
Your glory goes beyond all fame
In my heart and my soul
Lord I give You control
Consume me from the inside out
Lord let justice and praise
Become my embrace
To love You from the inside out
Your will above all else
My purpose remains
The art of losing myself
In bringing You praise
Everlasting
Your light will shine when all else fades
Never ending
Your glory goes beyond all fame
In my heart and my soul
Lord I give You control
Consume me from the inside out
Lord let justice and praise
Become my embrace
To love You from the inside out
Everlasting
Your light will shine when all else fades
Never ending
Your glory goes beyond all fame
And the cry of my heart
Is to bring
You praise
From the inside out
Lord my soul cries out
In my heart and my soul
Lord I give You control
Consume me from the inside out
Lord let justice and praise
Become my embrace
To love You from the inside out
Everlasting
Your light will shine when all else fades
Never ending
Your glory goes beyond all fame
And the cry of my heart
Is to bring
You praise
From the inside out
Lord my soul cries out
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With a bit more time this morning now to fully address this:
The more we talk about our problems, or situations, the bigger or worse they get
I disagree. Because they don't get bigger or worse. We only PERCEIVE them that way. If we talk constantly about the problem, we can magnify it in our own mind and then worry and over-anxiety ourselves over it. But the talk does not make the actual situation worse, just our perception of it. But there is also an opposite side of that. Holding things in and not talking at all, leads one to a blow-up out of proportion if they have no shoulder to lean on and no one to confide in when something is weighing them down. There's a middle ground in there. And yet some people won't talk about anything and don't feel anyone else should, and some want to do nothing but talk talk talk about all that's wrong. I've done that. I've gotten much better dealing with things than I was a 3, 2, 1 year ago. But it's a learning process.
Because of the very fact that you are getting exactly what you are confessing.
And no no and NO. And this is what upset me from someone who did this VERY same thing Sunday. FIRST, they preached about just this thing. That if you’ve prayed and prayed about things and yet it seems everything is going the opposite, to keep praying, etc. They do an altar call on it. He says something to me at the altar I didn’t grasp and so I asked him afterward what he meant. In the discussion, I tell him that it’s been going just as he preached….I’ve prayed and prayed and yet everything keeps going opposite, and before I finished the sentence, he rudely interrupts and says right there is my confession and what I’ll always get, talking about all that’s gone wrong. What a setup! And how very very wrong on his part. He’s not a good listener, either of what was said to him or of what he preached, at that rate. And telling someone what HAS/IS happening, is not confessing that is what you WANT or that it will never change. There is a HUGE difference. But people want to jump in and preach more than they want to take time to listen.
When we confess that we are depressed, fearful etc. we are feeding that problem
No, we’re not. We’re confessing this is what we are feeling and asking…how do I stop this feeling, how do I overcome it? And we can either be the encourages scripture tells us to be and offer valid ideas and suggestions or shoot the depressed person down into further depression by throwing unhelpful sermons onto them.
if you are afraid to confess it, than it isn’t yours
That’s a judgment on people to put it that way in my opinion. Because I don’t usually hear people say they’re afraid to confess anything. But people do get discouraged and feelings lead them to momentarily feel God isn’t working in their life. I’ve been that way. It isn’t fear to confess, but fear they missed the boat. But God weighs the heart and HE knows the issue. And HE came to heal the brokenhearted, not down them or set them back further into low self-esteem and depression. He knows how beaten down they have been by this world. If you’ve never been beaten down by parents, teachers, told how worthless you are, you can never understand the depths of that pain and cannot therefore speak to it.
it is what you can boldly confess that will defeat your enemies, and build courage and faith in yourself.
Now here I agree. Yet healing from mental , physical, emotional abuses take time. God knows this, and He will take all the time one needs to heal and help them to boldly confess. He will, over time, build their faith and confession and their courage. Because He realizes beating them over the head to be what they aren’t yet isn’t going to push them forward but backwards.
I have been reading a list of Biblical affirmations about myself now for months. I’ve read that it takes 30 days to reprogram the mind doing this. HA! The people who determined that statistic perhaps did not truly work with a large enough base. I read that list for well over 30 days and yet STILL lapsed into discouragement and doubt seeing life still coming against me for so long. But the more I read it, daily, over and over, the more stronger it gets. But it is a process and takes time. NOTHING is overnight, and I do agree with Joyce Meyers…we live in a microwave society and want everything instantaneous. And if we’ve been walking with God for 20 years, we expect one who’s been there a few years to be on the same path we’re on. If we never experienced abuse in childhood, we expect one who has to “just get over it”. We’re not all made from a cookie cutter. God understands this better than anyone.
This is why He says to believe with your heart and confess with your mouth. Otherwise it is only a hope, and not faith.
Faith is believing in Christ, accepting Him and realizing God, Christ and the Holy Spirit will change your heart, will boost your faith, will strengthen you “from glory to glory”. And if your heart has been deceived into believing you’re worthless for many years, it will take some time for that to be reprogrammed. That entire verse is to believe with your heart and confess with your mouth that Jesus Christ is Lord and that God has raised Him from the dead. It does NOT say to believe with your heart and confess with your mouth every bit of scripture when you are born again. No, it further says…renew your mind. Renew…reprogram….relearn to think differently. Renew your mind with the Word of God. 66 books. Only a speed reader can get through that in a day, if that. And then to retain it? Renewal is a process. It is actually a lifelong process. But with 66 books, it is going to take some time.
unless we allow the Word to gain the ascendency over our thinking
Right there you said it! We have to allow the Word to GAIN…increasing over time.
We don’t deny the existents of the situations
I’ve been told to do that by people stating just what you’ve stated in your post. So much to the point that I tried valiantly to deny that my sinuses were hurting. I REFUSED to take sinus pills and prayed day and night for three days, until I got so miserable I broke down and took the pills, and days later, it was even worse and I ended up at the doctor. I had a severe sinus infection. Had I not stupidly not taken the pills to start with, I may have avoided all that. But I was trying to stand on faith as I’d been told to do. Made me feel like a complete idiot. But that was the message I was getting. Had a visiting preacher down people for taking medicine. Sheesh!
faith comes by hearing the Word….
Is that one sermon, two, three, a few hundred? But you say above “Otherwise it is only a hope, and not faith”. Yet the Bible says we’ve ALL been given a measure of faith. So which is it? Do we have faith or not? Does it grow with time hearing the word, reading the word, renewing the mind, or do we have no faith because we haven’t stopped being discouraged and never ever allow our feelings to get in our way?
Some even think we are trying to command God to do this or that, We are not commanding or asking God to do anything; but we are commanding the forces of darkness to become obedient to the authority of the Name of Jesus
God is already over all the forces of darkness. They just won’t accept it. Some in scripture, pleaded with God to help, some commanded the forces, some laid down and asked to die. And in ALL situations, God delivered them ALL. Perhaps we all have a piece of the puzzle that works differently for each of us and we need to learn to accept one another where we are and watch our words that may discourage more carefully.
yet we deny the very things that God says will happen if we say “speak” certain things
I’m not sure it is denial so much as long waits to see the things happen and not seeing them and discouragement sets in. We see others also that speak healing and die. The Bible tells us that many are the afflictions but God delivers us. And we see Him deliver many right where they were, and not all in the same place. Some in fear, some in depression. He had to talk Gideon up into believing in himself as a mighty man when Gideon thought: ARE YOU KIDDING? ME? Mighty?! Why I’m a coward!
It is the same with us. If we feel we’re not worthy, that we’ll fail, we’ve always been told we’re worthless and believe ourselves worthless and fearful, God will build us up. He will give us our pep talks and encourage us to believe we CAN with His help. But even Gideon still had to be nudged for a time. He was told he could, then told to decrease the army, then decrease it again, etc. God had to work on his courage building.
All of this can be resolved by the renewing of the mind to the Word.
Yes true. But a mind is not renewed in a day, a year, or even a few years at times. Sometimes it depends on how deep the scars run.
I say again, The Word MUST prevail over our thinking!!!
And it will, with time and God’s help. Not because people put us down if every word we speak isn’t scripture or if we are hurting and need someone to talk with who can understand what we feel and sympathize and encourage us with compassion.
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Permalink Reply by Amanda on
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Talking about things helps make them better, not worse. In your mind problems can look much harder and bigger than when you put them on paper and begin working through them or express them verbally and talk them out with others. Fear is what keeps most people from sharing in these ways, and it is unhealthy to keep things bottled up inside. If nothing else, we at least need to not fear being able to speak our words to the Lord in prayer, no matter how negative those words sound.
What a Friend we have in Jesus, all our sins and griefs to bear!
What a privilege to carry everything to God in prayer!
O what peace we often forfeit, O what needless pain we bear,
All because we do not carry everything to God in prayer.
Have we trials and temptations? Is there trouble anywhere?
We should never be discouraged; take it to the Lord in prayer.
Can we find a friend so faithful who will all our sorrows share?
Jesus knows our every weakness; take it to the Lord in prayer.
Are we weak and heavy laden, cumbered with a load of care?
Precious Savior, still our refuge, take it to the Lord in prayer.
Do your friends despise, forsake you? Take it to the Lord in prayer!
In His arms He’ll take and shield you; you will find a solace there.
Blessed Savior, Thou hast promised Thou wilt all our burdens bear
May we ever, Lord, be bringing all to Thee in earnest prayer.
Soon in glory bright unclouded there will be no need for prayer
Rapture, praise and endless worship will be our sweet portion there.
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Permalink Reply by JB on
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Talking about things helps make them better, not worse.
You are right, talking about, thinking about those things you are concerned about, only enhances its power. So if you are thinking about your depressions, fears, inabilities etc. they will grow stronger and brings you down to its level. So think about the solution, not the problem. The problem is not greater than God’s ability to deliver you.
I have a little plastic card hanging on my shower handle that says “when I fail, I look at what I did right, not at what I did wrong” Bible says in Phil.4:8, “finally brethren, whatsoever things are true, honest, just pure, lovely, and of good report; if there be any virtue, if there be any praise; think on these things.” Why would you think on these things rather than the negative impulses that bombard our minds every day? Because: it “the negative thoughts “enhances their ability to keep it in the forefront of our minds. There is a book out that says, “You can’t afford the luxury of a negative thought.” Most of our battles are in the mind, the mind makes the problems bigger than they really are. That is why the Word tells us to be transformed by the renewing of the mind. Ro.12:2. By renewing the mind to the Word of God, and His counsel, not what our emotions tells us.
In your mind problems can look much harder and bigger than when you put them on paper and begin working through them or express them verbally and talk them out with others.
All of this is in, and by the flesh, and by our own efforts to solve a spiritual problem. Eph.6:12, We wrestle not against flesh and blood, but….Trying to do it on your own, not looking to the Word for the answer, bible say not to lean on our own understanding. Pr.3:5-6,
Fear is what keeps most people from sharing in these ways, and it is unhealthy to keep things bottled up inside.
I will agree that it is not healthy to keep them bottled-up inside, Paul says in Phil.3:13, I count not myself to have apprehended, but this one thing I do, forgetting those things which are behind, and reaching forth unto those things which are before. Sure we can express them “our concerns” to the Lord, though He knows them already, it helps to get it off our chest, but not to another person, all they can do for us, is to wallow with us in our pity party; but that does not take care of the problem, just makes us feel worse, as with Job and his friends. Surely He has borne our grief’s and carried our sorrows… not our friends. But then we ask Him “The Word” for wisdom. James 1:6, ask in faith, nothing wavering…Heb.4:16 come boldly to the throne of grace that we may obtain mercy, and find grace to help in the time of need… But it seems we find more solace in what others say than what the Word says. When we do, that means we haven’t given the Word first place in our hearts.
An un-renewed mind is always warring against unbelief, praying for faith, but never arriving; it’s constantly talking unbelief, yet struggling to get faith. It is confessing failure, and at the same time confessing faith in the Word, yet denying it in their actions, trying to believe, yet they never act on the Word as if it were true.
I am not trying to offend anyone, but I do not apologize for what the Word says.
JB
PS. I love the old song you posted, What a Friend we have in Jesus, all our sins and grief’s to bear! What a privilege to carry everything to God in prayer!
Have you noticed? O what peace we often forfeit, O what needless pain we bear?
If He bore them, then why do we think we have too?
All because we do not carry everything to God in prayer.
It does not tell us to take them to our friends, or others we confide in, but to God in prayer.
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Permalink Reply by ribbon on
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JB
I'm not going to defend my depression to you. I will say that there is a humongous difference of when I do have pity party's than when I am DEPRESSED. Also I want to respond to your comment....
An un-renewed mind is always warring against unbelief, praying for faith, but never arriving; it’s constantly talking unbelief, yet struggling to get faith. It is confessing failure, and at the same time confessing faith in the Word, yet denying it in their actions, trying to believe, yet they never act on the Word as if it were true
I need to write that down and post it everywhere in my home.... write it on my hand to see all the time. The above is exactly what I do all the time. Well I don't confess the having faith bit I do the rest. Thanks for posting .
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Janie,
I wish I could take every discouraging word you've ever heard in your whole life and replace it with an encouraging one, and then you could be built up so strong and I could undo all the tearing down that you've suffered. Your mind is being renewed. You belong to the Beloved Jesus. Take heart.
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Amanda,
What a kind thing to say. Thank you, and I wish the same back to you. ((((Amanda<3))))
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JB,
You're right. We probably do spend more time talking about our problems and what's wrong than we do about our blessings and what's right. Forgive us, Lord.
You didn't highlight my last statement but left it out, where I said
"If nothing else, we at least need to not fear being able to speak our words to the Lord in prayer, no matter how negative those words sound." In essence we are in agreement, as far as taking things to God in prayer.
People likely get tired of hearing and listening but God never does. At the same time we should not be afraid of sharing these problems or talking about them and I'm very thankful that AAG permits us a forum such as this one.
The written word says:
Ephesians 4:11-16
King James Version (KJV)
11 And he gave some, apostles; and some, prophets; and some, evangelists; and some, pastors and teachers;
12 For the perfecting of the saints, for the work of the ministry, for the edifying of the body of Christ:
13 Till we all come in the unity of the faith, and of the knowledge of the Son of God, unto a perfect man, unto the measure of the stature of the fulness of Christ:
14 That we henceforth be no more children, tossed to and fro, and carried about with every wind of doctrine, by the sleight of men, and cunning craftiness, whereby they lie in wait to deceive;
15 But speaking the truth in love, may grow up into him in all things, which is the head, even Christ:
16 From whom the whole body fitly joined together and compacted by that which every joint supplieth, according to the effectual working in the measure of every part, maketh increase of the body unto the edifying of itself in love.
We are being perfected but not yet perfect. Our minds are being renewed but are not fully renewed yet. We need to be able to talk with one another, pray for one another, share our needs, our sorrows. We also need to share our blessings and make our praises and give our thanks. You're right and I understand your frustration. Perhaps it would help if you could remember a time when your mind wasn't as renewed as it is now and pray for us and forgive us for our faults and shortcomings and forbear with us and, once again, I mention pray for us that we may mature.
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So if you are thinking about your depressions, fears, inabilities etc. they will grow stronger and brings you down to its level
So if you're thinking about how to overcome your depressions, fears and inabilities, they'll get stronger by trying to figure out how to overcome them?
it helps to get it off our chest, but not to another person, all they can do for us, is to wallow with us in our pity party;
Then why were we told to bear one another's burdens and there is a time to weep? Some people just don't have the compassion to bear with one another and their burdens, that doesn't mean we don't get something off our chest to another person. If that were so, God wouldn't have created people. Adam would've been enough. But He recognized the need for people to share, to bear one another's burdens, to lift one another up. It's only a pity party if they make it a pity party. But they can also get some valuable advice from someone who's been there already and get some heartfelt encouragement to keep going on. Or they can be tore down and told to snap out of it and given no useful advice.
But it seems we find more solace in what others say than what the Word says. When we do, that means we haven’t given the Word first place in our hearts.
11 The Lord said, “Go out and stand on the mountain in the presence of the Lord, for the Lord is about to pass by.”
Then a great and powerful wind tore the mountains apart and shattered the rocks before the Lord, but the Lord was not in the wind. After the wind there was an earthquake, but the Lord was not in the earthquake. 12 After the earthquake came a fire, but the Lord was not in the fire. And after the fire came a gentle whisper. 13 When Elijah heard it, he pulled his cloak over his face and went out and stood at the mouth of the cave. 1 Kings 19
When storms are raging in life, it isn't so easy to hear God, much less be calmed. And when we cannot hear Him due to the storms, our inner self can become even stormier. Even God understands this concept and it is why He says to bear with one another's burdens. Sometimes it takes a cord of two strands so that one does not fall.
It does not tell us to take them to our friends, or others we confide in, but to God in prayer.
Even Jesus asked His friends to remain awake and pray with Him. If we were all in this alone, He would have simply gone off to pray and not needed them praying. I don't find Him ever reprimanding those in the Bible either for getting down. He instead would build them back up by telling them they can do it, by telling them they were loved. He knew the power of our words better than just telling others they had to speak the word, but He also knew the words He spoke over them could build them up or tear them down. He spoke with understanding and compassion "For we do not have a high priest who is unable to empathize with our weaknesses..."
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