Constantly on my mind today was how good our Heavenly Father is.

I confidently say GOD IS GOOD…AND DOES GOOD…ALWAYS because I have lived far too long and seen far too many times, God bring great answers to people, to believe anything else.

No matter how dire a situation, no matter what we see with our eyes or hear with our ears, no matter what we sometimes over-think with our brain, no situation is too far gone.

God shows up and makes good in every situation. We just have to believe that He will, and then wait…and maybe wait a little longer…and sometimes a little longer still, BUT HE WILL MAKE GOOD ON EVERYTHING.

You are good and kind and do good; teach me Your statutes, Psalm 119:68 AMP.

And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose. Romans, 8:28 NIV.

We have a Father who dearly loves us, giving His Only Son Jesus as a ransom for us. Will He not also be our ever-present help, Psalm 46:1 NIV.

People do many great things. People work and see the work of their hands accomplish many great things.

Some people have incredible creativity, others incredible abilities to think and reason. Some people make incredible breakthroughs in science and medicine, others in sport. Some people are incredible nurturers and caregivers, others incredible teachers. Some people have incredible capacities for administration, others love literature. Some people are incredible dreamers, others are great building things with their hands. Some people are great at all of this!! (This is not meant to be an exhaustive list)

But it is God who gives us everything, including our ability to be passionate about our work and accomplish great things.

Most of us don’t like to have to wait. Impatient and a little impetuous, we want things now; yesterday would have been better. We get anxious, frustrated, some give up, some leave, some rush ahead striving to make things happen for God–as if He somehow needed it, or as if this pleased Him.

God does not desire our impetuous plans, anxious or frustrated trying to work-things-out-on-our-own. It only leads us to over think, overanalyze, come to the wrong conclusions, too often make the wrong decisions, and rush to do the wrong things; or the right things at the wrong time.

This happens because our inability to see and know all things limits our perspective. We are not omniscient, God is. We do not know the future, God does. Understanding this demands we trust Him.

God loves it when we wait. Patiently wait. It shows our obedience. It shows great faith. Over and over the bible says things like, they were told to wait a little longer, Revelation 6:11. Waiting requires that we put our own desires aside and learn to desire God, above all.

God desires our obedience, 1Samuel 15:22. God desires we develop faith. Our faith gives us patience for the journey.

Every person has dreams in their heart, placed their by God. It is for the furthering of the kingdom of God in the earth.

The dreams belong to God and we belong to God. He is our loving Father. He does not fill us full of dreams to frustrate us. He will fulfill us. Part of that fulfillment is the joyful journey of learning to allow God to lead us, to show us His amazing love, and learning to live completely dependent on Him.

Somehow, somewhere, if we stay God-loyal, faithful, and obedient, God will ensure the dreams find full expression. And they will be of great benefit to many people. Jesus will get the glory because we know it wasn’t anything we could do on our own.

Jesus said, trust like a child. A child simply believes. If they are told something by a parent they say, OK! And get on with playing and enjoying the good company of friends and family. We should say a big OK to God and then get on enjoying the good life He brings our way.

…Allow the little children to come to Me, and do not hinder them, for to such [as these] belongs the kingdom of God. Truly I say to you, whoever does not accept and receive and welcome the kingdom of God like a little child [does] shall not in any way enter it [at all], Luke 18:16,17, AMP.

Who are the to such as these? It’s you and me, if we simply believe what God has said and do it. No questions. No compromises. No second guessing. No teenager attitude. No young-adult entitlement. No mature-adult doubtful skepticism. No asserting our will over that of God’s. Just simply accepting and receiving what God is doing.

Simply and humbly trust that God holds the future. Then take a deep breath, relax and enjoy the journey.

The Holy Spirit takes our very ordinary life and makes it extraordinary when we allow Him to lead us. We can moment-by-moment learn to depend on Him, letting Him lead and direct our steps, our every decision, our every conversation. Living in-step with the Holy Spirit then becomes a very natural out working of our faith; every moment of everyday.

God expects us as Christians to exhibit a changed life, to be following the example of Jesus, 1John 2:6. The Holy Spirit, if allowed, will build into our lives the very life of Jesus.

Primarily we see this changed life by the way we love others.

If we live by the Spirit, keeping in-step with everything He wants to do in us, He will lead us into this changed life. And it will be demonstrated by our continual growth in these ares: love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control, Galatians 5:22.

The Galatians passage refers to these as the Fruit of the Spirit and they develop and grow in our lives as we determine to walk out our faith in Jesus, being led everyday by the Holy Spirit.

Christianity is very black and white but it gets grey and muddied when we allow the creep of our self-entitled, politically correct, post modern culture to influence our lives. This is where we find ourselves playing the game of Christianity. Beware, it’s a loosing game invented by the devil, a smokescreen for the real thing.

Instead of living by God’s Word, by conviction and faith and love, we live by what is convenient and popular and by the dictates of our feelings–our flesh.

Picking and choosing scripture we love, ignoring scripture that contradicts our choices, we reason away and excuse our open disobedience and rebellion to God. Of course we’d never call it open disobedience or rebellion, we cloak it in religious sounding speech and expertly make it sound like we are mature christians. 

We want God’s grace without responsibility. God’s will and purpose without submission to His process. God’s generous hand of blessing without His strong hand of faith and character development. We want the cross without the sacrifice.

Don’t live like this. It’s powerless Christianity, a counterfeit. 

Live an all-out full-on relationship with Jesus. It’s the only real valid Christianity. It won’t be popular, or convenient. It won’t always feel good, or look pretty. It will often be painful and require much of us. It’s not for the faint hearted. Nor is it for the self-seeking, self-promoting person full of agenda.

Christianity is very simple. It’s very black and white:

• Follow Jesus.
• Denying ourselves and taking up our cross.
• Get in on what Jesus is doing.
• Be where He is.
• Live to serve others.
• The total giving away of ourself, so that…
• We allow Jesus full reign in our hearts and minds, then…
• Jesus is the center of everything we are.
• Live fully by the truth of His Word. No compromise. No excuse. Obeying God’s every word.
• Having our eyes fixed on Him, we take up His vital cause of reaching the world.

Every person seeks this. Every person needs this. We see this in Jesus’ own life. Immediately after He was water baptized, the heavens parted and God’s voice spoke, This is my Son, whom I love; with him I am well pleased, Matthew 3:17.

God knows we need validation. That is, to know our inherent worth and value. And God bestows value on us as His son or daughter.

Yet…

Many of us spend our time looking for–longing for–the praises and validations of men. Impatient and seduced by pride, we cut short God’s process of leading and directing us to look to Him. And instead, seek the appreciation and attentions of men.

Something we should all be very aware of: 

• The praises of men are extremely addictive, feeding our pride and ego. Our flesh loves to be appreciated and praised by men but it leads to a spiritual wasteland of a life.
• The praises of men come and go. If we are looking to men for appreciation or a sense of worth, we will be an emotional mess. Loved and popular one day, we will feel good about ourselves. Not so loved or popular the next, we will feel depressed and unhappy. Our emotions are left to the dictates of the flesh.

It doesn’t take faith to look to men for validation, much less appreciation, or to get some idea of our self-worth. It doesn’t take any faith to look to men.

It takes great faith to daily walk out who we are because we have taken time to listen to God and obey His voice; despite what we get–or don’t get–from people in the form of validation.

If our eyes are on Jesus, He will teach and confirm in us, who we are.

God knows we need validation. God validates us through His Son Jesus. To God, we are worth Jesus.

But, if I am a constant critic, cynical, suspicious, closed, gossipy, harsh, demanding, judging, divisive, deliberately intimidating, contentious and wanting to argue, I show the love of Jesus is not in me. I have a love deficient heart. I have swapped the purity and simplicity of relationship with Jesus for a loveless, powerless, and religious way of living. It is counterfeit Christianity.

The way I love people gives evidence to the work of God in my life.

If I allow Jesus’ love to be fully formed in me, I can love people the way He loves me. And when I love people the way He loves me, this gives evidence to the world that Jesus is the Son of God, Matthew 17:23, paraphrased.

Yet at the exact moment we decide to obey God, we gain strength, faith and focus to do what He asks of us. 

If we get in the habit of faithfully obeying, our life becomes one quick willing and obedient response to everything God asks of us. We become indifferent to any consequence other than that of not obeying God. Any fear, discomfort, reservation or personal cost is not even factored in, as God has shown us He will immediately meet our decision to keep obeying Him with strength, faith and focus, every time!

When the authentic turns up, everything inauthentic is confronted.

When light shines, every shred of darkness disappears. Unless there is something blocking the light allowing shadows to remain and lurk in the background.

We block the light in our lives when we dishonestly hide things from God or people. Dishonesty will cast shadows through our entire life that remain until we decide to get truly honest and repent.

We block the light in our lives when we are full of pretense, all show, a carefully crafted version of ourselves, image managing or protecting. This is primarily borne from a heart that fears man: insecurity.

Fear, guilt, shame, addiction, dishonest behavior, are all deep dark sin-infested things and they love hiding out in the shadows of our lives, where they are free to hold oppressive power over us. I am talking about the Christian who loves Jesus, yet is living life with hidden stuff. This stuff does us in the longer we keep it hidden.

…God is light; in him there is no darkness at all. If we claim to have fellowship with him and yet walk in the darkness, we lie and do not live out the truth. But if we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus, his Son, purifies us from all sin.

God wants us living true, authentic, light-filled lives. Then the church can be a beacon of light and hope to the world…

Related Posts:
Symptoms of spiritual sickness
Simplicity is a wonderful thing

We want to believe the best in people. We want to. We are Christians after all. We are supposed to love and forgive, just as Jesus did, right!

So when an emotionally abusive christian comes into our world and we start to notice things aren’t quite right, instead of questioning their disturbed character, we question and doubt ourselves. We will guilt trip ourselves because we think we wrongly judged them and Jesus wouldn’t do that... Actually He would and He did!

Instead of calling a spade a spade:

• this person is a manipulator
• completely lacking integrity
• emotionally abusive
• controlling
• deceptively hurtful to people
• hides their lack of character in altruism–it’s all for the greater good
• lying
• full of self-seeking agenda
• uses others for their own gain…

We find reason to excuse their hateful actions, often looking into our own heart, digging deep, to find why we think or feel the way we do about that person, wanting to quiet our suspicions.

A character disturbed person loves this. They take queues from this and play to our sympathies and weaknesses, furthering, if they can, their control and dominance. They can make it look like they are giving us their love, loyalty, and friendship, but it’s always to get something in return. They always want something in return. They never give freely. A character disturbed person wants other people to feel as if they owe them something. They will constantly remind people of this. Don’t forget what I’ve done for you. Don’t forget how I’ve helped you…

What they seek is power, personal or financial gain, to be seen as important, superior, to dominate others, to gain for themselves opportunity…

A character disturbed person stops at nothing to get what they want. They set themselves up to be the go-to spiritual advisor for people, usurping and assuming spiritual leadership and authority. Why? Because they often can.

Sometimes there is a vacuum of good-Godly leadership–a ready-made hole waiting for someone, anyone, to step into. Sometimes christians lack solid direction for themselves so when a strong and dominant person comes along they quickly follow. Other times christians are naive and vulnerable, wanting to believe the best in people, yet lacking wisdom and spiritual discernment, thus leaving themselves and our churches open to the whims of these wolves.

Character disturbed people are wolves in sheep’s clothing, masterfully good at hiding their razor-sharp teeth.

Character disturbed people take advantage of and prey on the naive and vulnerable. They are masters of manipulation and people fall into their trap every time. Countless among us have.

They may look and sound beautiful to the eyes and ears. They are brilliant at seducing and winning people’s attentions. Their speech can be full of eloquent bible, further convincing us of their altruism and simultaneously reinforcing any self-doubt we have in our suspicions of their intentions.

I am oversimplifying the difference between good and evil but for the sake of keeping this short, it’s intention.

If we are doubting a person intentions, listen to that doubt and sort through it, accurately. A disconnect between what a person says and does, should be obvious enough for us to connect the dots.

If after spending time with a person, we have unsettled, conflicted, confused, or depressed thoughts, maybe feelings of guilt, or a heaviness, these should be crystal clear signs, this person is an abusive manipulator; character disturbed.

Jesus called a spade a spade. He called people out. He recognized wrong agenda’s. He knew the intentions of people’s hearts. And He spoke directly to it. He would not let these people get close to Him. He would not let these people have their way. This is not a lack of love or forgiveness. This is called having healthy boundaries. This is called being wise in relationships. And Jesus modeled it.

We benefit greatly when we use wisdom in relationships and have healthy boundaries. We only have healthy boundaries when we are aware of the fact there are people we need to keep at a safe distance. There are people we need to say goodbye to. And that is more than just OK, it’s healthily guarding ourselves, our families, our churches. It sets us up to live long, happy, content lives, enabling us to fulfill what God has placed on our life.

If you are reading this post and you are character disturbed, given to using people to get what you want in life, manipulative, controlling…umm, well, you’ve been called out…

Christians behaving badly series:
I might be narcissistic if…
How to spot a pharisee
Church Diva 
Gossip
Character Disturbance