What is your life? It is even a vapor...
Jas 4:14 Whereas ye know not what shall be on the morrow. For what is
your life? It is even a vapour, that appeareth for a little time, and then
vanisheth away.
I've been talking a lot about Satan recently, about how real he is and how we
have to resist him, and you know what? Satan doesn't like that kind of
talk.
Talk about attacks. I really didn't expect to be attacked viciously but he
knows us, Satan knows us inside and out, he knows our weaknesses, he know the
things that bother us the most, he knows how to manipulate us expertly. You
think he doesn't? The next time you have a really, really bad day try to pick it
apart a little and see why it turned out that way. What were the circumstances
that created that bad day? Were they seemingly random? Were they perhaps
orchestrated somehow? You know the awful thing, Satan loves to use seemingly
innocent things to attack us so we don't attribute it to him at all.
The thing is, God will take the attacks Satan enacts and use them to teach
us, to chastise us, to put us in a fire to purify us. When we are being fiercely
attacked it's like we are being dropped into a vat under which is the hottest
fire is burning wildly. Instantly we begin to melt and the impurities in us
begin to separate from what is pure. Burning. If you've ever been burned
you know how it feels. If you've accidentally touched something that was a bit
too hot you instantly pull your hand back, right? Depending upon the temperature
of what you touched the severity will vary. Extremely hot and all it takes is a
few second touch to burn your hand very badly, just slightly hot and you might
get a red stinging mark for a bit. When we are in the fire being tried it feels
AWFUL! It's is PAINFUL in a whole different way. Depending upon what impurities
are being pulled out, the temperature will again, vary.
If Satan attacks and your whole world seems to have been rocked and nothing
feels right or good in anyway, if your entire existence is twisted and turned
until you feel completely out of sorts, it's a good bet you are in a really,
really hot vat, that fire is burning wildly.
The thing is, the attack put you on the defensive as it brings out the worse
in you. All the impurities are rising to the top and boiling out and you can't
stop them. Suddenly you see yourself in a whole new light and yet because this
is a huge trial, it's not something you want to see. You want to somehow excuse
your behavior away, you want to somehow be right, to become vindicated for what
you are going through. To have to admit you might be wrong, that this awful
thing in you is against all you want to stand for in Christ, isn't easy.
Truthfully, I still don't want to admit it.
I want to rail and fight, I want to be understood, to be justified. I want to
accuse and be given a sympathetic ear. What is happening isn't right. And NO
some of it is just downright WRONG but we are supposed to put up with being
despised, put out, ignored, regulated to last place, abused. We are
supposed to allow those who would wound us to do so and turn the other cheek so
they can wound that one too. Right?
As you can tell my attack is ongoing, I'm in the middle of it right now and
it's so incredibly hard to even write this because I feel so conflicted.
I recognize the attack and yet it's so hard to yield to the promptings of the
Holy Spirit. Recognizing the impurities in yourself is NEVER easy, never.
This verse popped out at me as I started this study tonight-
Jas 4:14 Whereas ye know not what shall be on the morrow. For what is
your life? It is even a vapour, that appeareth for a little time, and then
vanisheth away.
Our lives are so fleeting, we do not know what tomorrow will bring. We do not
even know if we will be here tomorrow. Yet people make plans to do things that
are weeks away, we have to plan, right? Yet in all reality our lives are
fleeting. And sometimes our plans come to pass, other times they don't.
Our lives are but a vapor that exists for such a short period in the grand
scheme of things. We need to comprehend this more fully, I NEED TO.
God please help me, I'm so conflicted, help me deal with what is going on in
my life right now. Please help me to accept the chastising, to understand the
burning flame is only there to work out the impurities in me of which there are
so incredibly many.
Help me. In YOUR LOVE! By YOUR GRACE! Please Lord by YOUR
MERCY.
your life? It is even a vapour, that appeareth for a little time, and then
vanisheth away.
I've been talking a lot about Satan recently, about how real he is and how we
have to resist him, and you know what? Satan doesn't like that kind of
talk.
Talk about attacks. I really didn't expect to be attacked viciously but he
knows us, Satan knows us inside and out, he knows our weaknesses, he know the
things that bother us the most, he knows how to manipulate us expertly. You
think he doesn't? The next time you have a really, really bad day try to pick it
apart a little and see why it turned out that way. What were the circumstances
that created that bad day? Were they seemingly random? Were they perhaps
orchestrated somehow? You know the awful thing, Satan loves to use seemingly
innocent things to attack us so we don't attribute it to him at all.
The thing is, God will take the attacks Satan enacts and use them to teach
us, to chastise us, to put us in a fire to purify us. When we are being fiercely
attacked it's like we are being dropped into a vat under which is the hottest
fire is burning wildly. Instantly we begin to melt and the impurities in us
begin to separate from what is pure. Burning. If you've ever been burned
you know how it feels. If you've accidentally touched something that was a bit
too hot you instantly pull your hand back, right? Depending upon the temperature
of what you touched the severity will vary. Extremely hot and all it takes is a
few second touch to burn your hand very badly, just slightly hot and you might
get a red stinging mark for a bit. When we are in the fire being tried it feels
AWFUL! It's is PAINFUL in a whole different way. Depending upon what impurities
are being pulled out, the temperature will again, vary.
If Satan attacks and your whole world seems to have been rocked and nothing
feels right or good in anyway, if your entire existence is twisted and turned
until you feel completely out of sorts, it's a good bet you are in a really,
really hot vat, that fire is burning wildly.
The thing is, the attack put you on the defensive as it brings out the worse
in you. All the impurities are rising to the top and boiling out and you can't
stop them. Suddenly you see yourself in a whole new light and yet because this
is a huge trial, it's not something you want to see. You want to somehow excuse
your behavior away, you want to somehow be right, to become vindicated for what
you are going through. To have to admit you might be wrong, that this awful
thing in you is against all you want to stand for in Christ, isn't easy.
Truthfully, I still don't want to admit it.
I want to rail and fight, I want to be understood, to be justified. I want to
accuse and be given a sympathetic ear. What is happening isn't right. And NO
some of it is just downright WRONG but we are supposed to put up with being
despised, put out, ignored, regulated to last place, abused. We are
supposed to allow those who would wound us to do so and turn the other cheek so
they can wound that one too. Right?
As you can tell my attack is ongoing, I'm in the middle of it right now and
it's so incredibly hard to even write this because I feel so conflicted.
I recognize the attack and yet it's so hard to yield to the promptings of the
Holy Spirit. Recognizing the impurities in yourself is NEVER easy, never.
This verse popped out at me as I started this study tonight-
Jas 4:14 Whereas ye know not what shall be on the morrow. For what is
your life? It is even a vapour, that appeareth for a little time, and then
vanisheth away.
Our lives are so fleeting, we do not know what tomorrow will bring. We do not
even know if we will be here tomorrow. Yet people make plans to do things that
are weeks away, we have to plan, right? Yet in all reality our lives are
fleeting. And sometimes our plans come to pass, other times they don't.
Our lives are but a vapor that exists for such a short period in the grand
scheme of things. We need to comprehend this more fully, I NEED TO.
God please help me, I'm so conflicted, help me deal with what is going on in
my life right now. Please help me to accept the chastising, to understand the
burning flame is only there to work out the impurities in me of which there are
so incredibly many.
Help me. In YOUR LOVE! By YOUR GRACE! Please Lord by YOUR
MERCY.